Marcellus Shale Sludge Rejected in Washington County(PA) Sent to West Virginia

[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

[mopinko]

1. sooooo. why doesnt the doe

mine this shit?
thats what i dont get about the coal ash, too.
the things that are poison in our water are raw materials in industry. we dig up rocks and grind them into sand to get the same materials.

we need to close the loop, or park the cars.

[Divernan]

3. Because only Frackers know what other lethal materials are in the sludge.

It's a super secret formula/trade secret as to what lethal cocktail makes up the fracking liquids used. Even physicians are not allowed to know what chemicals/heavy metals/etc., their patients have been exposed to in the event of spills, explosions, etc. It's called the Fracking Gag Rule.

A growing number of states – Pennsylvania among them – have passed their own disclosure regulations, though. Wyoming was first, in September 2010. Arkansas, Pennsylvania and Michigan followed suit. In June 2011, Texas became the first state to pass a law requiring companies to disclose what chemicals are being shot into the ground at each well. However, companies are not required to identify proportions/amounts of ingredients, and due to overly broad protective exceptions for trade secrets, don't have to disclose ALL of the ingredients .All five states' regulations and laws allow companies to claim “trade secrets,” and keep information about certain chemicals from being released to the public.



A website called FracFocus is touted as a national clearinghouse for information about fracking chemicals. It’s run by the Fracking industry's Groundwater Protection Council, and received a ringing endorsement from Obama's federal Department of Energy’s August report on shale drilling, which called for an “immediate” increase in well-by-well chemical disclosure. However others are dismissive of Frac Focus: "Harvard Study gives failing grade to fracking industry website." The Harvard authors cite reporting by the New York Times, and a Bloomberg report from last summer which found companies under-reporting their operations:

Energy companies failed to list more than two out of every five fracked wells in eight U.S. states from April 11, 2011, when FracFocus began operating, through the end of last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The gaps reveal shortcomings in the voluntary approach to transparency on the site, which has received funding from oil and gas trade groups and $1.5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy.

“Incomplete an inaccurate disclosures … serve no public purpose,” authors Kate Konschnik, Margaret Holden and Alexa Shasteen wrote in the report, “We should make sure these systems work.”

http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2013/04/24/harvard-study-gives-failing-grade-to-fracking-industry-disclosure-website/

[mopinko]

8. i'm sure that has something to do with it, but

i'm not talking about what they put down there, i'm talking about the slurry that comes up.
if they wanted to mine it, i'm sure they could and would regardless.
i'm sure extractive industries keep each other's secrets just fine.
now if they will just stop competing, and stop wasting all these minerals, etc that are coming up here.
we have the technology to make reactor fuel from pulverized rocks.
this is how they do it, make it into soup, and sort it out.
lets make it from THESE rock, since they seem to be full of something like that.
mercury and candmium laced the coal ash. also extremely valuable industrial metals.

imma keep talking about this, cuz i dont see anyone else with this thought.

[Orrex]

2. I'm surprised that Corbett isn't putting it into school lunches

[Divernan]

4. Glow-in-the-dark school kids!

[They_Live]

5. I really wonder

if these frackers are using depleted uranium drill bits. Then, even if they reported all the toxic chemicals that they are injecting into the ground, they could just leave out the fact that they are using radioactive metal bits. I seem to remember a news story about radioactive drill bit that went missing in Texas (and was later found, right).

[Divernan]

6. Apparently depleted uranium is in the witch's brew (apologies to witches)

One commenter on the Pgh. Post Gazette story wrote:
"Depleted uranium is used to perforate the pipes in the fracking step. This should be identified and quantified in the waste."

And then there's this:http://rt.com/op-edge/fracking-radioactive-uranium-danger-ecology-057/

[They_Live]

7. As I suspected...

... a bad idea all around.

[packman]

9. Used to live in Washington County

prefracking days. Nice enough, bucolic, cows, farms and such. However, it was no secret that if something was amiss be it garbage waste, industrial waste or any other crap - it would be taken to West Virginia and dumped either legally or illegally . I can remember a guy telling me he would take toxic waste to WV in his RV in those oil drums and then bring back slaughtered cow and deer carcasses in the same RV for processing/and or/rendering to the local slaughter houses.

[littlemissmartypants]

10. Poor WV, will they ever get a break. I think they

Should pipe the crap right into the new bathtub in the outrageously expensive redo NC Govna Pat McCrory did on the mansion while he rejected medicaid and delayed food stamps payments. Women and children, when will they get a break?

Love, Peace and Shelter. Lmsp