Radioactive Water DownStreaming Out of Pennsylvania Fracking Waste Site

[KoKo]

Radioactive Water Streaming Out of Pennsylvania Fracking Waste Site
Report reveals 'surprising magnitude of radioactivity' in local water sources from fracking waste
- Jacob Chamberlain, staff writer



A Consol Energy Horizontal Gas Drilling Rig explores the Marcellus Shale outside the town of Waynesburg, PA on April 13, 2012 (Mladen Antonov AFP/Getty Images)

Waste-water from a hydraulic fracturing site in Pennsylvania that is treated and released into local streams has caused high levels of toxic contamination, including elevated levels of radioactive materials, a report released Wednesday exposes.

"We were surprised by the magnitude of radioactivity" downstream from the plant, said co-author Avner Vengosh, geochemistry professor at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment. "It's unusual to find this level," he told USA Today, adding that other sites should be investigated.

The Guardian reports:

The Duke University study, published on Wednesday, examined the water discharged from Josephine Brine Treatment Facility into Blacklick Creek, which feeds into a water source for western Pennsylvania cities, including Pittsburgh. Scientists took samples upstream and downstream from the treatment facility over a two-year period, with the last sample taken in June this year.

Elevated levels of chloride and bromide, combined with strontium, radium, oxygen, and hydrogen isotopic compositions, are present in the Marcellus shale waste waters, the study found.

The report, published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology by a group of Duke University researchers, states that fracking waste water disposal methods pose a great threat to human and environmental health, particularly gas companies that send waste to treatment sites that are currently allowed to release treated water into local streams.

Shale gas production, i.e. fracking, is currently exempt from certain rules within laws such as the Clean Water Act and the Safe Water Drinking Act due to the "Halliburton loophole" pushed through by former Vice-President/former Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney. Frackers are allowed to monitor their own waste production and largely avoid any regulated restrictions.

According to the researchers, radium levels in the Pennsylvania stream sediments where waste-water was discharged were about "200 times greater than upstream and background sediments and above radioactive waste disposal threshold regulations, posing potential environmental risks of radium bio-accumulation in localized areas of shale gas waste-water disposal."

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/10/02-7http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/10/02-7

[snagglepuss]

1. k and r

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. Gee, why am I not surprised?

[KoKo]

7. I think this should have been put in the tests before they allowed it...

The Fracking.

This is from Duke University...not some site that the Proponents of Fracking love to trash.

[djean111]

3. I'm kind of surprised anyone was allowed to test the water and report on it.

Anyhow, this is sort of what life with the TPP would be like - no one has to follow any environmental regulations if those regulations affect profits adversely.

[KoKo]

4. I had no idea they were "treating and releasing." This is dangerous

in itself. That no one figured to look for radiation and one wonders what the "standards" of the treatment are. Who set the standards in the first place. Probably the company that does the fracking is the one that sets the standards and not the EPA. Reminds me of BP/Exxon and others... Disaster waiting to happen.

[KoKo]

5. I think that this comes from DUKE Investigation...gives it creds that

is hard to ignore.

[KoKo]

6. So Little Interest....So Little Time...to DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS!

Why is that? I hate having to whore my own post.

Why so little interest from a Duke University Study?

Can anyone help me on this?

[Agony]

8. Kick & Rec

it is well recognized that the Marcellus Shale has elevated radioactivity associated with it so this is not really a surprise. The industry uses a downhole gamma detector to determine when the drill bit is "in the zone". I have no idea why so little interest as this is a long term disaster playing out in slow motion. Every gallon of fracking flowback has Radium 226/228 and other radioisotopes in it, how can you expect there to not be a problem if this waste is at all concentrated. The same applies to drill cuttings.

Gas and oil drilling waste is by definition not hazardous waste, it is regulated as industrial waste... different standards. In NYS even tho it has long been acknowledged that particularly unconventional drilling waste contains radioactivity it is NORM (Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material) and essentially unregulated. Industrial waste can be "rendered harmless" just by applying a Beneficial Use Determination to it, filling out a simple form and then spreading it on a road to control dust for example. Same radioactive shit that is getting dumped in the PA "treatment" plant.

Total WTF scenario.

I share your frustration.

Cheers however!
Agony

[Agony]

9. link

Koko, the link in the OP is malformed, I fixed it --->http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/10/02-7

another link to the story---> http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/02/fracking-radioactive-water-pennsylvania/2904829/

and in bloomberg business week-->http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-10-02/radiation-in-pennsylvania-creek-seen-as-legacy-of-fracking-waste

This story is getting some play in the lamestream media.

link to the abstract of the original publication---> http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es402165b?prevSearch=%255BContrib%253A%2Bvengosh%255D&searchHistoryKey=

Thanks for posting this.
Agony

[KoKo]

11. Oh...thanks...I didn't realize it didn't work. No one mentioned..

So..I figured it was okay. Thanks for the extra links to this.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Kick