Wastewater Left Over From Hydraulic Fracturing in the Marcellus Shale Contains High Levels of Radioactive Elements, Reports DEC
By Pat C.
The name “Marcellus” in the Marcellus Shale, the underground gas formation that is believed to contain over 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, comes from Marcellus, New York where the shale is visible. The shale outcrop is believed to be radioactive and has caused radon problems for residents of the Village of Marcellus.
However, the radon problems are minor compared to what the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (NYDEC) is discovering now: that the wastewater produced by hydraulic fracturing contains radioactive elements.
“When they [the drilling companies] find radioactivity…they use it as a marker to find valuable deposits of shale, therefore gas,” said Pat Carullo, member of the DEC. Drilling companies seek out areas polluted with radiation to drill in.
The DEC began testing 13 samples of wastewater and discovered that they contain a derivative of uranium and radium-226 that are as high as 267 times the limit considered safe for discharge into the environment, and thousands of times the limit safe for people to drink.
The radioactive wastewater causes worry among the citizens of New York State, the New York Department of Health (DOH), and the DEC because, as of right now, there is no form of disposal that can guarantee there won’t be serious health effects. In states such as New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, and Pennsylvania, there are three ways the gas drilling companies have been able to “dispose” of the radioactive wastewater. One is to dump it into a waste pit and mist water on top it so it will evaporate. This evaporation process doesn’t dispose of the radioactive elements in the wastewater; it only puts them into the air causing health risks to the people who live in the surrounding area.
The second method is to transport the waste to an industrial water treatment plant where it is treated and pumped back into public waterways. This disposal process doesn’t guarantee that there will be no contamination of the waterway after the wastewater has been treated. The DEC says that at this time there are no facilities in New York specifically designed for treating radioactive wastewater, and it is unclear whether there are any treatment plants anywhere that are capable of handling such material.
Injecting the wastewater back into the ground is the last known form of disposal. This method requires an injection disposal well. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says that there are no injection disposal wells in New York licensed to receive radioactive wastewater.
Since the discovery of the radioactivity of the wastewater produced by hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale, fear of drilling has increased. The DEC is attempting to find the safest way to dispose of this wastewater but it may take time. Theodore Adams, a radiation remediation and water treatment consultant, said, “It’s [the wastewater] got to go somewhere. It’s not just going to go away.”
