According to this article
http://www.kens5.com/home/How-safe-i...107033418.html
hundreds of community water systems are contaminated with toxic alpha particles.
But it's not due to nuclear plant leakage or uranium mining operation, it's natural radiation.One particular type of radiation that popped up again and again, in water provided by utilities all across Texas, was something called alpha radiation, which public health scientists say can be particularly problematic when consumed.
“The alpha particle -- this is the 800-pound gorilla of radioactive particles,” said Dr. David Ozonoff, an environmental health professor and the chair emeritus of the Boston University School of Public Health.
This is something to keep in mind when you read scary stories of potential leakage of nuclear waste disposal at sites like Yucca Mountain after hundreds of thousands of years. Guess what. Lots of people are drinking the stuff right now. It sort of puts things in perspective, doesn't it?Most radioactive alpha particles end up in drinking water only after it is pumped up from groundwater wells in regions of the country with natural uranium, radium, or other radioactive deposits underground. In some cases, that are less common, radioactive elements do end up in surface water.