The city of Sycamore has been dealing with an ongoing problem of radium contamination in city water.

“(Sycamore) has been in violation for approximately five years,” Sycamore Mayor John Swedberg said.

The Illinois Pollution Control Board’s radium standard for drinking water is five pico curies per liter, said Maggie Carson, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. One pico curie is equal to about one-millionth of one-millionth of a curie. A curie represents the approximate radioactivity of one gram of radium.

“The amount that the EPA requires you to maintain is less pico curies than in a handful of macadamia nuts,” Swedberg said.

Water Superintendent Donald Smith said he agreed with Swedberg that the standard was low.

“It’s a low standard, but we have to abide by it,” he said.

The Illinois EPA maintained that the standards were set low for a specific reason.

When federal standards are set the states are not allowed to set their standards any higher, Carson said.

“When [the federal government] sets a number, they set it lower than necessary,” Carson said. This means there is less concern for public health risks when communities are in violation.

Swedberg said the radium situation in Sycamore does not represent a public health risk.

The Sycamore Water Department releases updates quarterly on the radium content, water superintendent Donald Smith said.

The most recent report is due out any day now, Smith said.

In November, the amount of radium in Sycamore’s water sat at about eight pico curies per liter. The new number is around 7.47 pico curies per liter, Smith said.

The city found a program that involves an ion exchange process to eliminate the radium from the water, Smith said.

“The IEPA has been monitoring our progress and agrees with what we’re doing,” Swedberg said.

The ion exchange process will cost the city about $500,000 per well, Swedberg said. This is half of what DeKalb paid in 1998 to fix a similar problem, he said.

DeKalb Mayor Greg Sparrow said the entire radium project cost DeKalb around $12.5 million.

Swedberg remained confident the city could solve the Sycamore radium problem.

“We will take care of our radium problem,” Swedberg said.