The city of Sycamore needs to stop dragging its feet on its radium problem.

Sycamore’s water has been in violation of Illinois Environmental Protection Agency standards for five years, said Sycamore mayor John Swedberg in a Jan. 28 Northern Star article.

Although the city is working to remove the radium from the water, it is not doing so quickly enough. A spokeswoman for the Illinois EPA said the maximum amount of radium in water is set lower than necessary to decrease public health risks, but the fact remains that Sycamore has violated the standards.

The most recent numbers in Sycamore have the amount of radium at 7.47 picoCuries per liter. The radium standard for drinking water is 5.0 picoCuries per liter.

Excessive radium ingestion has been linked to increased cancer rates. Even low levels of radium have been found to lead to minimal increases in cancer rates. The EPA estimates long-term consumption of water containing the current standard of radium will cause 44 added cancer deaths for every million people. The risk doubles to 88 per million when the radium levels are at 10 picoCuries per liter.

These numbers may be small, but they are still important. Sycamore should view radium reduction with more urgency. If money to treat the water is an issue, capital can be raised through the issue of bonds or the garnering of public grants.

Five years is too long to wait for the problem to be fixed.