A sign placed by the New Mexico Environmental Improvement Division discouraging use of the Puerco River. Shortly after the breach, below the dam radioactivity levels of river water were 7000 times that of the allowable level of drinking water. United Nuclear initially claimed that only one curie of radioactivity had been released in the<unk> , but that figure was later revised upward by the New Mexico Environmental Improvement Division. In all, of radioactivity were released. Prior to the<unk> , local residents used the riverside for recreation and herb-gathering, and children often waded in the Puerco River. Residents who waded in the river after the<unk>  went to the hospital complaining of burning feet and were misdiagnosed with heat stroke. Burns acquired by some of those who came into contact with the contaminated water developed serious infections and required amputations. Herds of sheep and cattle died after drinking the contaminated water, and children played in pools of contaminated water. The<unk>  contaminated shallow aquifers near the river that residents drank and used to water livestock. 1,700 people lost access to clean water after the<unk> . United Nuclear Corporation distributed 600 gallon-jugs of clean water, but the affected area required more than of water daily. The three community wells serving<unk> <unk>  had already been closed, one because of high radium levels and the other two for high levels of iron and bacteria. The Indian Health Service advised the tribe to repair five shallow wells along the Puerco River and said that the wells "are not expected to show any contamination, if at all, for several years." The Navajo Nation spent $100,000 on clean water, and in 1981, the New Mexico and federal governments stopped providing water, which they had delivered by truck since the<unk> . An epidemiological study conducted by the NMEID in 1989 concluded that "the health risk to the public from eating exposed cattle is minimal, unless large amounts of this tissue, especially liver and kidney, are ingested." An Indian Health Service study found significantly higher levels of radionuclides in<unk> <unk>  cattle compared to livestock from non-mining areas. The study's authors advised that contamination would not pose a risk as long as residents did not depend on livestock for food over long periods of time, but local Navajos did. A few Navajo children were sent to Los Alamos to be checked for radiation exposure, but no long-term monitoring was undertaken, prompting a local writer to comment that the IHS spent more effort studying livestock than the people affected. No ongoing epidemiological studies have been done at<unk> <unk> . Studies have shown since the 1950s that the Navajo have had significantly higher rates for some cancers than the national average, associated with contamination from the<unk>  mines and the exposure of workers to radiation.
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