"HOUSTON -- Radiation has contaminated the underground pipes, water tanks, and plumbing that provide drinking water for much of Central Texas and the famed Texas Hill Country, according to concerned city officials in the region who have tested the pipes with Geiger counters. 

According to local officials, the contamination comes from years of exposure to drinking water that already tests over federal legal limits for radioactive radium. Of even more concern, they say, is that any water quality testing is done before the water runs through the contaminated pipes that could be adding even more radiation.

'It’s a serious concern,' City of Brady Manager James Minor said. 'These pipes have so much radioactivity in them, metal recycling places refer to them as they’re "hot."'"

Mark Greenblatt reports for KHOU 11 News, Houston, May 18, 2011. [2]