# Uranium found in the new Chimney Hollow Dam
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranium-found-in-the-new-chimney-hollow-dam/1019499
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [June 11, 2025, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranium-found-in-the-new-chimney-hollow-dam/1019499 "2025-06-11T23:56:31Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2025, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranium-found-in-the-new-chimney-hollow-dam/1019499/1 "2025-06-11T23:56:31Z")
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. The rocks they have been using to build the new dam contain uranium. The dam officials admit that “long term ingestion” is a concern.
> **[Uranium discovered in Colorado's Chimney Hollow Dam, the largest built in...](https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/uranium-discovered-chimney-hollow-dam-colorado-reservoir/)**
>
> Just weeks before completion of construction, Northern Water has confirmed uranium has been discovered at the site of the Chimney Hollow Reservoir and Dam.
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### Author:  [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2025, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranium-found-in-the-new-chimney-hollow-dam/1019499/2 "2025-06-12T00:05:48Z")
Oops!
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2025, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranium-found-in-the-new-chimney-hollow-dam/1019499/3 "2025-06-12T00:08:10Z")
> [@mixdenny](#):
>
> The dam officials admit that “long term ingestion” is a concern.
This is why I never eat dam.
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2025, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranium-found-in-the-new-chimney-hollow-dam/1019499/4 "2025-06-12T00:16:44Z")
As the cite says\*-The concern about uranium is not about radioactivity or things people often associate with uranium. But, it is from the standard of long term ingestion," Stahla said."\*
Uranium is a poisonous metal, like lead, but somewhat safer than lead- still not by any means “safe”.
Most heavy metals can be dangerous over long term ingestion. Uranium is one of them- it is not the radioactivity.
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### Author:  [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2025, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranium-found-in-the-new-chimney-hollow-dam/1019499/5 "2025-06-12T00:36:36Z")
The world’s largest Revigorator.
> **[Radium ore Revigator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_ore_Revigator)**
>
> The radium ore Revigator was a pseudoscientific medical device consisting of a ceramic water crock lined with radioactive materials. It was patented in 1912 by R. W. Thomas. Thomas was working at the time as a stock salesman in Arizona but, by 1923, had moved to southern California to begin manufacture of his patent. In 1924, following several successful advertisement campaigns that left him unable to keep up with demand, he sold his operation to Dow-Herriman Pump & Machinery Company, sell The R...
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### Author:  [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2025, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranium-found-in-the-new-chimney-hollow-dam/1019499/6 "2025-06-12T00:51:25Z")
God dam!
Would this thread be considered “breaking news” and we should avoid political humor?
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### Author:  [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2025, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranium-found-in-the-new-chimney-hollow-dam/1019499/7 "2025-06-12T02:51:32Z")
I’ll tell you one thing, I bet very few workers wore any respiratory gear. At best most construction guys might wear a bandanna. So a few years of breathing traces of uranium.
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### Author:  [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2025, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranium-found-in-the-new-chimney-hollow-dam/1019499/8 "2025-06-13T13:23:37Z")
> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> Uranium is a poisonous metal, like lead, but somewhat safer than lead- still not by any means “safe”
It will eventually turn into lead, right?
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2025, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranium-found-in-the-new-chimney-hollow-dam/1019499/9 "2025-06-13T15:05:56Z")
Yes, mostly through alpha emission, and some beta. Beta rays are very easy to shield against, and alpha is actually very difficult to not shield against. So an alpha/beta emitter outside of the body is basically harmless (at least, with regards to its radiation). The problem comes when an alpha or beta emitter gets inside of an organism. It’s still really easy to stop the alpha or beta rays, but what’s stopping them is living tissue, which is basically guaranteed to get damaged in the process, and if it’s specifically DNA that gets damaged, it’s likely to lead to cancer. So ingestion (whether by eating, inhaling, injection, whatever) of alpha/beta sources is really bad, even though they’re mostly harmless outside of an organism.
This is in contrast to gamma rays. Gamma rays are highly penetrating, which means that you need really hefty shielding to protect against them (usually something like a meter or more of concrete). But by the same token, a gamma ray that passes through a living body, even from the inside, is likely to just go right through without interacting (they can still interact and cause damage, of course; it’s just less likely). So the scale of danger is mostly alpha and beta inside the body as the most dangerous, then gamma rays from any source, and then beta and alpha outside of the body.
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### Author:  [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2025, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranium-found-in-the-new-chimney-hollow-dam/1019499/10 "2025-06-13T15:24:20Z")
Three-eyed fishies in a ittie bitty pool…
[ ](https://inhabitat.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2011/10/Blinky-e1319824451193.jpg)
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2025, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uranium-found-in-the-new-chimney-hollow-dam/1019499/11 "2025-06-13T15:51:55Z")
Durango was a Uranium mining / processing town during the Cold War. One of the legacies of that mining was the tailings being used for fill in roadways and houses. It’s an ongoing problem.
[https://www.durangoco.gov/DocumentCenter/View/16139/Uranium-Mill-Tailings-Fact-Sheet](https://www.durangoco.gov/DocumentCenter/View/16139/Uranium-Mill-Tailings-Fact-Sheet)