The Vancourver Sun reports Fukushima radiation has been found on the lower Fraser River only 20 miles from Whatcom County farmland. It may have been carried there by rain, air pollution, salmon going up the Fraser River to spawn, or some other means.
Simon Fraser University scientists confirmed they found Cesium 134 last November in the soil along the Fraser River at Kilby Provincial Park, about 4 miles from Chilliwack. More research is being done to determine if there is radiation in the salmon, what other types of radioactive elements may be here from Fukushima, and how it is getting here.
Fukushima continues to rage out of control, spewing radiation on the world and contaminating water faster than the Japanese can contain it. And now, the first radiation from Fukushima has been found in local soil. We can be fairly sure it will get worse. But we may not be informed by U.S. agencies.
Here in the U.S, we only have reports that soothe and reassure us, insisting the danger of any Fukushima radiation reaching us is remote or non existant. Yet I do not know of any systematic studies being done by any state, federal or university programs to check for the radiation. If it is present 40 miles from Bellingham, up the Fraser River, the chances seem very good chance that it is also present in Whatcom County. But if we don't look for radiation, we can safely say we found no radiation. Seems simple enough.
I welcome any other links to further reliable sources of information about the Fukushima nuclear disaster and how it may be impacting us here. This topic is almost forbidden on Japanese news and has been dramatically downplayed by U.S. and state environmental agencies - in what appears to be an overt act of blindness and denial.
Further, we have not seen this mentioned in the Bellingham Herald and sincerely hope they will start to cover this important local issue. Our thanks to Scott, a commenter on NWCitizen, for the above link to the Vancouver Sun article.
Comments by Readers
Ryan M. Ferris
Mar 17, 2014There’s very little reliable information because very few institutions are systematically testing ocean water, plant life, marine mammals, etc. The anecdotal reports and the predicted spread (by some number of academic papers) and the ginormous amount of radiation that Fukushima has released so far is terrifying. Cities like Fairbanks and Berkeley have passed ordinances that support, request or establish more monitoring. Good luck having that happen here. As an example, where are the radio-isotope detection readings for our drinking water? We sure worry a lot about phosphorous. A small gamma emitting particle lodged in your tissue or radioactive iodine, cesium, or strontium absorbed through your drinking water constitutes a much worse contaminant and a much greater risk to the general health of our population in my humble opinion.
The EPA RADNET is collecting GAMMA GROSS counts (from air monitoring) that are downplayed for their significance. I put a snapshot here:
http://bellingham-wa-politics-economics.blogspot.com/2014/03/passed-three-year-anniversary-of.html
Keep in mind there are literally hundreds of anthropogenic radioisotopes that are created from nuclear fission. The release of radioactivity from Fukushima is measured in Terra-Becquerels. (TBq)