Nearly 2 million people throughout the Great Plains and California above aquifer sites contaminated with natural uranium that is mobilized by human-contributed nitrate, according to a new study.

"It is crazy and it is unacceptable that we have not done the exploration of the world's major aquifers, including those in the United States ... t show up in that map because we looked at ...

Caption The intensity of groundwater contamination via uranium (red) and nitrate (blue) is shown in two major aquifers and other sites through out the nation. UNL researcher Karrie Weber says the ...

(That's what the gray "footprint" at the bottom of the map shows.) In the United States, aquifers are taking on increasing importance as food production expands and drought becomes a nagging issue.

The High Plains aquifer -- the largest in the United States -- provides drinking water and irrigation for an eight-state swath that stretches from South Dakota through Nebraska and into northern ...