Water Politics (1986)

What would you do if you woke up one morning to the news that the water coming into your house  was contaminated by radioactive polonium?

Like most of us, C. B. Hiscock of Fort Lonesome, Florida, didn't give much thought to the purity of his drinking water — until this February when researchers from Florida State University found radioactive levels in his well 23 times the state standard. Now Hiscock and his family are buying jugs of water at the local Publix grocery store.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, the researchers "are perplexed as to how extensive and how harmful polonium exposure might be — and how to get rid of it." One scientist says the Florida Aquifer, underground source for most of the state's water, is not in danger because polonium — a "daughter" of unstable uranium atoms found naturally in phosphate ore — loses half its strength every 138 days and "should dissipate" before reaching consumers' taps. Others contend they can't tell how bad the problem is until their study of wells in the  phosphate-rich, west-central part of Florida is completed near the end of 1986.

Neither the EPA nor the state plans any action until the survey is finished, even though everyone knows the contamination has been worsened by years of phosphate companies' pumping the waste water from their mines into deep sink holes or "recharge wells" that replenish the ground water supply. Regulators are not anxious to throw another hurdle before the powerful phosphate industry which  employs 12,500 Floridians and provides 80 percent of the nation's phosphate needs. After all, the industry already suffers from a declining fertilizer market, increasing foreign competition, and costly environmental regulations.

So while the scientists conduct their study and the regulators wait for the results, Hiscock and his neighbors have abandoned their wells and hope the bottled water they're buying is safe. What would you do if you were in his shoes?