Study: Central Valley’s private wells at risk of manganese contamination
A new study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology estimates that thousands of private well users in the Central Valley could be extracting contaminated water. The study estimates a 0.7 percent chance users of a domestic well in the Tulare Lake hydrologic region, which includes Hanford, would draw water above the Environmental Protection Agency’s secondary maximum contaminant level for manganese. According to Samantha Ying, principal investigator of the study and assistant professor of Soil Biochemistry at the University of California Riverside, manganese, a mineral naturally found in groundwater, can have serious effects on health. This is particularly true for babies and children.