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TRACE AND POTENTIALLY TOXIC ELEMENTS ASSOCIATED WITH URANIUM DEPOSITS IN SOUTH TEXAS
Citation:
Henry, C. AND R. Kapadia. TRACE AND POTENTIALLY TOXIC ELEMENTS ASSOCIATED WITH URANIUM DEPOSITS IN SOUTH TEXAS. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/7-83/005 (NTIS PB83154054), 1983.
Description:
The environmentally sensitive trace elements molybdenum, arsenic, and selenium are concentrated with uranium in ore deposits in South Texas. Cattle grazing in some pastures in mining areas have contracted molybdenosis, a cattle disease resulting from an imbalance of molybdenum and copper. To determine natural concentrations of the elements in soils in the South Texas area and to evaluate possible effects of mining on adjacent agricultural land, two sets of soil samples were collected and analyzed for molybdenum, arsenic, selenium, and copper. Results of the random sampling show that the different geologic formations have different characteristic trace element concentrations. Comparison of molybdenum and copper concentrations in soils and grasses and theoretical considerations of the availability to plants of molybdenum and copper in soils suggest that forage in much of the area studied could have anomalously low copper/molybdenum ratios--low enough to induce molybdenosis in cattle.