The five-year project, funded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), was prompted by the discovery three years ago of elevated levels of naturally occurring uranium in about 80 private water wells in Simpsonville, southeast of Greenville. Uranium levels were as high as 10,000 parts per billion in some of the wells; the EPA standard for drinking water is 30 ppb.

“We’re hoping to identify other areas of the state where uranium might be contaminating groundwater supplies,” said Tom Temples, director of USC’s Center for Water Research and Policy in the School of the Environment. “Uranium is considered a toxic metal, and, therefore, can cause kidney damage. It’s not considered to be carcinogenic, but there’s been little research on what ingested uranium does to the human body.”

In searching for hidden pockets of uranium-tainted groundwater, USC is working with investigators at the state Department of Health and Environmental Control and EPA as well as faculty at Clemson University. For initial reference, researchers are using a 1970s federal study that was focused on finding uranium ore for a then-burgeoning nuclear power industry. That study includes groundwater data from several thousand locations in South Carolina.

“We’re resampling wells, stream water, and sediments from some of the sites that had higher than normal uranium levels in that early study,” Temples said. “In the process, we’re looking for other minerals, such as arsenic, that might be present with uranium. That would help us to develop a prediction model for finding other sites with elevated uranium levels.”

Uranium is naturally occurring across the United States, but is especially prevalent in the Colorado plateau, in south Texas, and in a recently discovered deposit in Virginia.
The Center for Water Research and Policy hopes to expand the uranium study with the EPA to include all of the East Coast.

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