On 22 March 2011, the Federal Environmental Protection Agency reported rain water contamination numbers for Idaho. Do you understand them?

The EPA reported 242 pCi/L of I-131. Understand?  pCi means Picocuries.  I-131 means iodine-131. L means liters. 242 Picocuries per liter of iodine-131. Should you be worried? Yes!

The Federal government set safe levels of iodine-131, in drinking water, at 0.111 Becquerels per liter.  Using a Picocurie to Becquerel conversion program I discovered that the March 22 readings worked out to 8.954 Becquerels per liter, more than the government’s safe limits.

The EPA levels were in rain water, but rain water is used for livestock, and ends up in many municipality’s water systems.