So by limiting radon in water, it can limit its health hazzard. But even with the plants the city would be unable to deliver that ground water. According to a voter initiative approved in 1996, no water from a polluted well can be piped into the city's water system - even if it's treated. The vote leaves Tucson short 47 million gallons of water, and millions of gallons of CAP water are being dumped into the ground in Avra Valley. Miller said the fate of Colorado River water delivered by the CAP is not the point.
Radon is a colorless and odorless, but radioactive, gas created by the natural breakdown of uranium.
Radon is the first of three believed cancer-causing agents to be restricted under the federal Clean Drinking Water Act of 1996. By year's end standards for arsenic will be announced, followed by rules involving sulfates.