Radium in coastal Sarasota County ground water

Sarasota County is one of 10 generalized areas of the continental United states known to have high concentrations of naturally occurring radium in fresh ground water. Various authors have conducted investigations to examine the distribution of radium in ground water, rivers, and estuaries. They concluded that ground water was the source of radium, but rivers were also enriched with radium a result of the interaction with ground water. The Gulf of Mexico also ha areas with radium enrichment resulting from geothermal springs with concentrations as high as 51 picocuries per liter. During 1986 and 1987, the Health and Rehabilitative Services of the state of Florida collected ground water data for radium analysis of private drinking water wells. These data were used to develop a contour map of radium-226 concentrations for coastal Sarasota County