Marcellus Shale Sludge Rejected in Washington County(PA) Sent to West Virginia [View all]

[Divernan]

Source: Tribune Review

Range Resources on Tuesday disposed of Marcellus shale drilling sludge in West Virginia that was deemed too radioactive for a Washington County landfill.

The Cecil-based company sent two roll-off boxes of material from a well pad in Smith Township in Washington County to Meadowfill Landfill in Bridgeport, W.Va., spokesman Matt Pitzarella said. On March 1, representatives from Arden Landfill in Chartiers turned the material away after it tripped radioactivity monitors.



Read more: http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/6184655-74/material-landfill-washington#axzz32t8dkuIi

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This news story broke around 8:30 p.m. tonight. This is the latest development on the story of radioactive fracking waste/sludge being turned down by Pennsylvania dumps/landfills. The Pennsylvania DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) would better be known as the Department of Environmental Prostitution. GOP Governor Corbett has so thoroughly sold out the state's DEP to Big Fracking that he has appointed political hacks from Big Oil at top spots, slashed the number of field inspectors even as the number of wells, well pads, processing stations has figuratively, and in some cases, literally exploded, and even stripped field inspectors of the ability to issue citations in the field, regardless of how egregious the violations.

The background story on this is at: http://www.post-gazette.com/business/2014/05/27/Two-more-containers-found-with-Marcellus-Shale-sludge-radioactivity-in-Washington-County/stories/201405270162

The DEP states it is (merely) "encouraging" enforcement of radioactivity rules. “We’ve been talking to landfills and ENCOURAGING them to reject loads with radioactivity higher than 150 microcuries because we want more thought given to how we handle this and what goes into landfills,” Mr. Poister said. “It’s something we feel is necessary given the oil and gas boom.” I suggest the time is well past for thinking about how to handle this and merely ENCOURAGING the profiteers to exercise care. Safety guidelines should have been researched and documented, at the Frackers' expense, before fracking commenced and should be rigorously enforced.

Now a recent study determines that the test used by PA's DEP to measure radioactivity in fracking wastewater grossly UNDERESTIMATES radioactivity. "When energy companies extract natural gas from shale using hydraulic fracturing, they generate flowback wastewater, a brine solution that contains naturally occurring radionuclides, including radium isotopes. Because some of this wastewater is diverted to treatment plants and eventually discharged into local waterways, state environmental agencies have started to establish procedures for monitoring radium levels in the wastewater. However, a new study cautions that one test state agencies are considering could underestimate radium levels by as much as 99%." (Environ. Sci. Technol. Lett. 2014, DOI: 10.1021/ez5000379). http://cen.acs.org/articles/92/web/2014/03/Analytical-Test-Underestimate-Radioactivity-Fracking.html