Marcellus shale outcrop

Report of Radioactive Wastes from Marcellus Shale Fracking

From the Article of the Binghamton Examiner, www.examiner.com, October 2, 2013

A new study conducted by Avner Vengosh, professor of geochemistry and water quality at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, and colleagues is the first to report substantially higher than normal levels of radioactive waste in the effluent waters processed from the hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale area of Pennsylvania. The research was reported in the October 2, 2013, issue of the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

Radium levels were 200 times higher downstream from the Josephine Brine Treatment Facility (hydraulic fracturing waste water treatment plant) than upstream in the Blacklick Creek. The treatment plant is state of the art and has been approved by the EPA.

The problem is that over time the accumulations of radioactive radium in the sediments down stream from the treatment plant have risen above what is considered a safe limit for drinking water. The potential duration of this radioactive contamination is thousands of years.

The researchers also found much higher levels of barium, bromide salts, and chloride salts in the water downstream from the treatment plant than above the plant.

The scientists recommend that operations be suspended until sufficient equipment can be installed to mitigate the pollution problems that are produced from shale oil production in any form.

NOTE: See also the more complete Article here.

A home water filter can reduce trihalomethanes from tap water, but they can still be inhaled (think steam in the shower).

Bromides, a salt found in brine from oil and gas drilling, create a carcinogen called trihalomethanes when they are chlorinated in drinking water.  It is because of high levels of bromides in source rivers, such as the Ohio and Monongahela, that dozens of drinking water treatment plants in West Virginia and Pennsylvania have violated EPA standards for trihalomethanes since 2008– the year gas drillers began flocking to the area to tap the Marcellus Shale.

Since this spring, drillers have been sending less of their brine water from shale gas wells to municipal treatment plants, which do not have the expensive new technology required to remove bromides.  They’re opting to send it to deep injection wells or recycling facilites instead. Thus, one would expect that, especially after such a wet year, bromide levels in the rivers would have dropped.

However, a story from Pittsburgh Public Media reports that bromide levels remain high. One potential culprit is conventional oil and gas drilling, but a definitive answer has not been found yet.  The EPA plans to tighten standards for trihalomethanes in the spring, meaning that if drinking water treatment plants exceed standards for the chemical, its customers will be notified that their drinking water does not comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act.