Origin, fate, and transport of ~(228)Ra and ~(226)Ra in groundwater and public drinking water, Pensacola, Florida, USA

摘要

Over the past 50 years Pensacola, Florida has closed and abandoned a number of drinking water wells on which the city was dependent. The cause was traced chiefly to two industrial facilities within the city that are now designated as Superfund sites. One was a former wood treatment plant and the other a fertilizer manufacturing operation that was responsible for generation of a large groundwater plume containing elevated fluorine, aluminum, lead, arsenic, sulfate, and radium. The source of the latter was controversial but was ultimately traced to detrital monazite that was present in the heavy mineral fraction of ores shipped to, and processed at the site.