Snow Melt in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and Our Drinking Water
As summer comes on and the snow begins to melt in the mountains, that water will flow into streams and rivers and, eventually, our water reserves...namely our drinking and irrigation water. After all, as it poured down radioactive rain in the Bay Area (and the rest of the state), it snowed heavily in the Sierra Nevadas.
BRAWM, please continue to monitor our tap water even if results appear lower. It is not over yet...
considering that these
considering that these patterns are not predictable, it certainly seems at least one or two measurements would be warranted if one wants to err on the side of caution. It's very possible that it could accumulate in the snow pack at higher levels than on the coast or in the Valley....no reason/evidence not to believe that at this point.
forgot to add...
the water in the reservoirs - wouldn't it already have it's own accumulation from rain, run-off, etc, so it's not "pure" as the snow-melt runs into it?
I guess if you're just talking about low levels, again, the mantra is that they have noimpact on health.
The reservoirs were full before Fukushima
There was already a lot of water in the reservoirs to dilute the post
Fukushima rain and run off. I wouldn't be surprised to see that the snow
(which was also already piled high before Fukushima) would be also very
diluted upon melting.
Even the Strawberry Creek results on the Berkeley campus showed a lot
of dilution at the peak of the fallout. The results were much lower than
the rain results at that time.
Rain 3/24/2011 18:10 to 3/25/2011 11:23:
I-131: 3.16, Cs-134: 0.54, Cs-137: 0.50
http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/RainWaterSampling
Strawberry Creek 3/25/2011 16:40:
I-131: 0.107, Cs-134: 0.049, Cs-137: 0.055
http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/node/2104
I-131 Won't Be There
From everything we've seen, the I-131 should have decayed away by then. If
it hasn't already. We *may* see cesium. But, given the fact that the
reservoirs were full before any fallout arrived, the dilution should
keep levels very low. If the reservoirs had been empty before the snow
melt, we may be looking at a different situation.