Irradiated River?

[waterboy]

In a letter to the editor Sunday one of our fellow residents asserts that the Arkansas River has radiated pellets in its sand and was considered for mining those pellets during the 50's but it was just 1 point too low for mining. Attention lawyers: much of that sand is now in our concrete around town.  He also didn't seem to know the Channels dam would have flood gates and that the Least Terns would not be affected by the islands project so I don't know if he is credible or not. Does anyone know? Is the Arkansas full of radiation, either naturally occurring or manmade? Does it glow at night? Has our government conspired to keep this info from us? Inquiring minds want to know.