Pumpkin Spring, an Arsenic Pool in the Grand Canyon - Neatorama

Pumpkin Spring is a geological oddity is a limestone formation off the Colorado River. Some water spills over the top, but that which remains has a deadly mixture of arsenic, copper, zinc and lead. It's dangerous, but beautiful. View more pictures at the link.

Link | Photo: Flickr user al_hikesaz

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FIFTY milligrams of arsenic per liter? I don't want to drink whatever you're drinking, the minimum fatal dose of arsenic is 70 milligrams

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As of 1940 the US safe standard is 0.05 mg/L or about 50 parts per billion. It was updated in 2006 to 0.01 mg/L or 10 ppb. Their article is off by a little.

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I'm pretty sure that you meant 50µg

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Well, I was going by what Kuriositas said. Yeah, that's a really high figure. According to the EPA, the safe level is 10 parts per billion.

I can't find an immediate source for the arsenic level in Pumpkin Springs, so I've just taken out the entire sentence.

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So, this poisonous arsenic spring is seeping water into the Colorado river all the time? Isn't this kind of a problem?

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