Nuclear Waste Must be Secured and Our Waters Protected -- Take Action!

Buffalo Niagara Region has a serious waste problem and perhaps none is so serious as the West Valley Nuclear Waste Facility 30 miles south of Buffalo.  An array of nuclear waste has been stored and some buried on an erodible plateau since the 1960s, put in place before there were any laws on the siting of such dangerous waste.  This site is managed by the Department of Energy and owned by the NYS Energy Research and Development Authority, agencies responsible for cleaning up the waste and protecting public health and our waters.

Charley Bowman, of the Sierra Club Niagara Group, points out that “the protection of fresh water supplies underpins organized existence of human beings. There are enormous amounts of radioactivity (100,000’s of Curies) buried and stored at the West Valley nuclear waste site. Some of that radioactivity is escaping beyond the site boundaries and now resides in the surrounding unstable soils, trees and creeks. Some of the radioactive elements will be dangerous for millions of years.”

The Department of Energy begins Scoping Hearings for a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement on March 19, 20 and 21, to determine the final disposition of this waste site.  Joanne Hameister who has been working with the Coalition on West Valley Nuclear Wastes since the 1970s states that her group “has been involved with the decision process for four decades.  After three Environmental Impact Statements and a fourth to begin in March, billions of dollars, a lot of surveys and studies, lawsuits and many 'duct tape' solutions to problems, we might have a direction for the future of the site.  The next decision must protect the water of the Great Lakes, Erie and Ontario, drinking water for millions of people downstream and for thousands of generations that could inherit these risks of radiation if we do not 'do the right thing' now.  It is a big order: dig it up, secure the waste and do not forget it.”

 “The government scoping meetings March 19, 20 and 21 are the public’s chance to tell the Department of Energy and NY Energy Research and Development Authority that we want full cleanup of the West Valley nuclear waste site. But the only way the deadly waste will be removed from the Great Lakes watershed is if our elected officials MAKE IT HAPPEN.”  Diane D’Arrigo argues that “the Department of Energy, NYSERDA, all their contractors and other ‘regulatory agencies’ will not step up unless they are forced to do so” based on the communities experience with the 2010 Environmental Impact Statement that delayed the decision for over a decade.

Hearings will be held at three different locations: 

Monday, March 19, 2018, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
West Valley Volunteer Hose Company, Inc., Firemen’s Memorial Hall and Training, 9091 Route 240, West Valley, NY 14171, in the Main Hall.

Tuesday, March 20, 2018, from 6:00p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Erie Community College, City Campus, Post Office Building, 121 Ellicott Street, Buffalo, NY 14203, in the Minnie Gillette Auditorium.

Wednesday, March 21, 2018, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Seneca Nation of Indians Cattaraugus Council Chambers, 12837 Route 438, Irving, NY 14081

Pat Townsend of the Interfai th Climate Justice Community says that she is “already writing my comments to email them to DOE and NYSERDA during the public comment period that has just started. I remember the rainfall that caused the Gowanda flood of 2009 and the landslide it caused at West Valley. With our crazy, changing weather, who knows what erosion will do to the West Valley nuclear wastes? I've seen the maps: erosion could take radioactive waste right down the creeks to Lake Erie and Buffalo's water."

--  Submitted by Lynda Schneekloth, Sierra Club Niagara Group


More information:
Nuclear Information and Resource Service   www.nirs.org/campaigns/west-valley
Information Center   www.seiswestvalleysite.com 
Sierra Club Niagara Group   www.niagarasierraclub.com/issues/west-valley-nuclear-waste-site

COMMUNITY FORUM: Don't want Nuclear Waste in Your Water? Get Informed and Take Action!

Presentation by 

ALAN LOCKWOOD, MD
Professor Emeritus of Neurology, University at Buffalo &

Senior Scientist, Physicians for Social Responsibility.

Thursday, March 1 at 7:00 PM,
Burchfield Penney Art Center, 1300 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo. (across from Albright Knox Art Gallery) [Map]

The Presentation will be followed by a Panel Discussion 

Learn how to make comments at Scoping Hearings

For detailed information on the Scoping Hearings, 

Click Here and see Page 2 of the document. 

 

Thanks to the Burchfield Penny Art Gallery, the Western New York Environmental Alliance, Sierra Club Niagara Group
 

PUBLIC MEETING: Amherst Town Board to Review Draft Hydrofracking Law

The Amherst Town Board will review a draft Local Law banning high-volume hydrofracking and fracking waste at the 7:00pm meeting on Monday, May 18 in the Amherst Municipal Building, 5583 Main St, Williamsville [Map].

The draft Local Law states the following Prohibited Uses:

1. No land in the Town of Amherst shall be used for high volume hydrofracking (HVHF).
2. To the extent not pre-empted by Federal, State or County rules, regulations or statutes, no byproducts of hydrofracking are permitted to enter or be disposed of in the Town of Amherst.

The Hydrofracking Resolution and draft Local Law can be downloaded using links shown under the "Attachments" section: Click Here

Citizens concerned about toxic and radioactive fracking waste from Pennsylvania being disposed in New York or spread on our roads should attend. Another concern is fracking of the Utica Shale which extends throughout our region.

We need the Town Board to subject the local law to a public hearing and a vote at their next meeting. If the local anti-fracking law passes the review today, it will be on the agenda for a public hearing and vote at the next Town Board meeting in two weeks.   

FRACKING NEWS

Despite Fracking Ban, New Yorkers Saddled with 

Radioactive Fracking Waste

New report lifts the veil on how NYS has enabled Pennsylvania to dump more than 460,000 tons of fracking waste inside our borders.

Albany – A new report from Environmental Advocates of New York sheds light on the practice of potentially radioactive out-of-state fracking waste getting dumped in New York despite Governor Cuomo’s ongoing implementation of a ban on high-volume hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

“Fracking wastes are notoriously toxic and radioactive,” said Liz Moran, water and natural resources associate, and report author. “Despite knowing the public health concerns, the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) enables New York landfills to accept Pennsylvania’s fracking waste with little oversight. If fracking isn’t safe for New Yorkers, then waste from other states’ fracking operations isn’t safe for New Yorkers either.”

Key Concerns

To date, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection reports that at least 460,000 tons of solid fracking waste and 23,000 barrels of liquid waste have been dumped in seven New York landfills. Comparatively, the DEC says the state does not accept this type of waste.

Additionally:

• In 2013, radiation detectors in Pennsylvania were triggered more than 1000 times by the same kind of fracking waste accepted by New York, signaling dangerous levels of radiation – while not a single radioactive detector was set off by New York landfills.
• Leachate (toxins from solid waste that leach into collection pools) from landfills ends up in New York’s wastewater treatment plants, none of which are capable of ridding water of radiation or other dangerous chemicals.
• The DEC has failed to implement standardized oversight, regulation or testing, and has fallen far short of the strong public health safeguards that guided the state Department of Health’s fracking review.

Read more at Environmental Advocates of New York

See also an earlier report, Fracking Waste: A Radioactive Legacy for New York? 

New - and Worrisome - Contaminants Emerge from 

Oil and Gas Wells

Researchers find alarming levels of ammonium and iodide in fracking wastewater released into Pennsylvania and West Virginia streams.

Two hazardous chemicals never before known as oil and gas industry pollutants – ammonium and iodide – are being released into Pennsylvania and West Virginia waterways from the booming energy operations of the Marcellus shale, a new study shows.

Treatment plants were never designed to handle these contaminants.

The toxic substances, which can have a devastating impact on fish, ecosystems, and potentially, human health, are extracted from geological formations along with natural gas and oil during both hydraulic fracturing and conventional drilling operations, said Duke University scientists in a study published today in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

The chemicals then are making their way into streams and rivers, both accidentally and through deliberate release from treatment plants that were never designed to handle these contaminants, the researchers said.

Read more at DailyClimate.org

New Report: Oil and Gas Industry using Flawed Research to Promote Fracking

BUFFALO, NY – The oil and gas industry is using flawed research to give the impression of a scientific consensus that fracking is safe and beneficial, according to a new report released today by the Public Accountability Initiative (PAI).

The report, titled “Frackademia in Depth,” assesses over 130 studies that the industry has put forward to help make the scientific case for fracking, analyzing them for the strength of their industry ties and their relative academic quality (whether they were peer-reviewed).

PAI found that only 14% of the studies had been subject to peer review, while nearly 76% had some degree of connection to the oil and gas industry through funders, authors, and issuers.

PAI also found that the list included reports that had been discredited and retracted by the institutions that published them, including a 2012 report from the University of Texas that an independent panel convened by the school decried as “falling short of contemporary standards of scientific work” after PAI revealed undisclosed conflicts of interest and shoddy scholarship.

The extensive list of studies analyzed in the report was originally compiled by Energy in Depth, a nationwide industry outreach effort, and used to convince legislators in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania to lease mineral rights under a county park for fracking. The list opens a telling window onto the body of fracking research that the oil and gas industry deems fit for public consumption.

“Though the industry says that the science is settled in favor fracking, their own best evidence does not support that claim,” said Robert Galbraith, a research analyst at PAI and co-author of the report.

Read the report at PublicAccountability.org

ExxonMobil slammed with $2.3 Million Fine for 

Fracking-related Water Pollution

The EPA found a roundabout way of holding natural gas drillers accountable for Clean Water Act violations.

The EPA just hit XTO Energy, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil and the nation’s largest natural gas company, with a cool $2.3 million fine for Clean Water Act violations related to its fracking activities in West Virginia.

This is big: you rarely hear about frackers being held federally accountable for polluting water supplies, thanks to Bush-era legislation commonly known as the “Halliburton Loophole.” Basically, it ensures that fracking is exempted from the portions of the Safe Drinking Water Act and Clean Water Act that would typically make it accountable to federal oversight; as such, the EPA is mostly prevented from regulating both the process and the chemicals it injects into the ground.

The EPA’s approach is a clever workaround of those restrictions. As CleanTechnica’s Tina Casey explains, the pollution targeted by the EPA wasn’t caused by fracking itself, but instead by other, ordinary violations committed by XTO: the company, it charges, dumped sand, dirt, rocks and other dirty fill materials into streams and wetlands without a permit, in violation of the Clean Water Act.

In total, the company damaged 5,300 linear feet of streams and 3.38 acres of wetland — making the $2.3 million fine comparatively large, particularly when you consider the extra $3 million it agreed to pay in restoration costs.

This isn’t the first time the EPA has pursued this roundabout policy of holding frackers accountable. Last year, it nailed fracking giant Chesapeake Energy for the same violation, resulting in a record $6.5 million settlement.

Read more at BuffaloNews.com

FRACKING NEWS

Excerpts from articles in the news:
 
NY high court rejects Dryden fracking suit revival

New York’s highest court rejected an attempt to revive the fight against the Town of Dryden and its fracking ban.

In a precedent-setting decision last June, the Court of Appeals ruled 5-2 that communities have the right to use local land-use authority to prohibit oil and gas operations within their borders.

On Thursday, the court denied a motion by the trustee for bankrupt Norse Energy to re-argue its case against the Town of Dryden.

Read more here.


More New Yorkers Oppose Fracking: Poll

A new poll conducted by the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an environmental activist group, shows 56 percent of New Yorkers oppose fracking in the state. The survey of 802 New Yorkers was conducted by a third-party research firm in late September.

A similar survey by Quinnipiac University in mid-August found that only 48 percent of voters opposed fracking.

Anti-fracking activists have redoubled their efforts in recent weeks, following Gov. Cuomo on the campaign trail in an attempt to have him take a stance on fracking before the election, but the governor has kept a steadfast ambivalence on the subject.

Read more here.

 
Report: New York Governor’s Office Altered And Delayed Fracking Study

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration edited and delayed a fracking study commissioned by the state, according to a review by Capital New York.

The New York news outlet reported Monday that the Cuomo administration had altered a report on the natural gas extraction technique commonly referred to as fracking. The report was commissioned in 2011 and was “going to result in a number of politically inconvenient conclusions” for the governor. A comparison of the original draft of the report, which was put together by the U.S. Geological Survey, and the final version, showed that some of the original descriptions and mentions of fracking-related health and environmental risks were “played down or removed.”

Read more here.


Duke researchers explore potential dangers of fracking

With North Carolina's ban on fracking set to expire next year, Duke researchers are looking into the potential dangers of the technique.

“We sampled hundreds of homes with private drinking water wells, and found that people living near shale gas wells are more likely to have methane, ethane, and propane, the components of natural gas, in their water,” said Robert Jackson, formerly of the Nicholas School of the Environment and now a professor of environment and energy at Stanford University.

“I think there’s a perception amongst some people in Raleigh that they don’t want to hear about problems that might occur,” Jackson said. “I think the Mining and Energy Commission was designed to establish rules to help drilling come to North Carolina, not to decide whether or not drilling should come to North Carolina. That discussion never really happened.”

Read more here.


Residents Harmed by Fracking Demand EPA Administrator Drink their Tainted Water
Want EPA to Reopen Investigation of Drinking Water Contamination By Fracking

WASHINGTON - Affected community members from Dimock, Pennsylvania, along with advocacy organizations, rallied outside of EPA Headquarters to demand that EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy either re-open investigations into fracking’s impact on people and the environment, or drink frack water from Pennsylvania that her agency has told residents is safe.

The action came after a year of gathering over 250,000 petitions, thousands of calls, and dozens of events asking McCarthy to meet with them, following the Los Angeles Times story that revealed the Obama Administration had shut down the EPA fracking investigation that found their drinking water contamination linked to drilling and fracking operations.

“My water is brown and smells so bad it will make you nauseous, yet EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy tells me and my neighbors that this poison is safe to drink,” said Ray Kemble, a resident from Dimock, PA who was part of the EPA’s fracking-related water investigation in 2012. “To make matters worse, Gina McCarthy is promoting more and more fracking across the country, meaning my story will be shared by millions of Americans. This has to stop.”

Read more here.


Frackers are dumping toxic waste into California’s groundwater

California can officially add one more disaster to its rapidly growing list of water woes: The EPA just found that at least nine fracking sites throughout the state have been dumping billions of gallons of contaminated wastewater into its protected aquifers.

Not only do many of these aquifers supply drinking water to residents throughout the Central Valley, they’re also reaching dangerously low levels due to overuse, as many farmers rely on aquifers for irrigation and have been overpumping groundwater supplies as the drought carries on.

According to a letter sent to the EPA by the California State Water Resources Board, roughly 3 billion gallons of wastewater were illegally injected into aquifers throughout central California. The EPA ordered the report following contamination concerns after 11 fracking wastewater injection wells were shut down in July by state officials.

Read more here.


Michigan landfill operator suspends receipt of low-level radioactive waste

A Van Buren Township hazardous-waste landfill operator, slated to receive up to 36 tons of low-level radioactive waste from a Pennsylvania fracking company, announced Monday that it will suspend receipt of such materials from all oil and gas operations pending a review by the state.

The announcements follow an Aug. 19 Free Press report on plans by a Pennsylvania oil and gas development company, Range Resources, to ship radioactive fracking waste to Wayne Disposal. The sludge was rejected by landfills in western Pennsylvania and its shipment to a landfill in West Virginia was halted by the state and voluntarily discontinued by the company, as West Virginia reforms its laws for handling such waste.

Ohio and West Virginia, two states with more intensive fracking activity than Michigan, have changed regulations on how to store, treat, process and dispose of radioactive oil and gas drilling wastes. Pennsylvania also doesn’t allow the materials in its landfills. Each of the states leaves it to oil and gas developers to find a disposal site. As Ohio tightened its regulations, state officials listed the Wayne Disposal site in Van Buren Township as an option for Ohio drillers.

Read more here.

[Click image to enlarge]

Wake-up Call on Fracking by Attorney who Won Bans

Wake-up Call on Fracking

By Helen Slottje, Esq. - Recipient of The Goldman Environmental Prize for her legal work on behalf of New York communities enacting local fracking bans

Officials must wake up from the oil & gas industry-induced trance  and provide true leadership
In an age when the voices and concerns of average Americans often go unheard in our political system, two small towns in upstate New York recently won an underdog victory against the oil and gas industry that should serve as a wake-up call to government officials across the nation.

Those two towns – Dryden and Middlefield – passed municipal bans on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, despite threats of lawsuits from the oil and gas industry. Industry made good on those threats, but lost in two trial courts, and on appeal to the New York State Court of Appeals. The state’s highest court held that municipalities have the right to use their long-standing zoning laws to ban oil and gas operations, including fracking.

My husband David and I developed much of the legal framework for towns to enact such local bans and moratoria – and about 180 similar measures that have passed in towns across New York State [see Map]. Now states across the nation are rightfully pursuing similar measures.

[Click image to enlarge]

We first learned about fracking at a local community meeting where photographic and personal accounts of the devastation wrought by fracking in Pennsylvania spurred concerned residents into action. We got involved because we wanted to protect our community and help our neighbors, and also because we don’t like bullies – especially like the oil and gas industry.

Unfortunately, fracking has spread throughout much of the nation with little if any honest consideration of the consequences. From the White House to Congress to most state governments, the oil and gas industry has successfully lobbied public officials to cave to their demands and have hired the same public relations consultants as the tobacco industry did to mire the facts about the harms of this violent drilling process.

This most egregiously dates back to the Bush-Cheney administration in 2005 when Dick Cheney met with big oil and gas to write our energy policy and delivered federal exemptions from key provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act, on top of the existing exemptions from the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act and the Superfund law. These exemptions let industry proceed with practically no oversight and without having to disclose the secret mix of hundreds of chemicals used in the fracking process.

As the oil and gas industry is quick to point out, President Obama and his administration officials have followed in the Bush-Cheney administration’s footsteps by championing fracking. They tout it as an alternative to coal and have long minimized the impacts and threats of water contamination, air pollution, health effects and social impacts.

Now independent science is beginning to catch up to this new practice and it’s all bad news. A rapidly expanding body of hundreds of recent scientific and medical studies shows that the impacts of fracking are significant, and with millions of Americans living within a mile of fracking sites, the potential exposure is alarming.

For example, based on three years of monitoring, a Colorado School of Public Health study found air pollutants near fracking sites at levels sufficient to raise risks of cancer, neurological deficits and respiratory problems. Among the chemicals was the carcinogen benzene, which separate air monitoring has found at dangerous levels at fracking sites in states including Colorado, Pennsylvania, Utah, Texas and West Virginia.

Many studies have linked drilling and fracking activities with water contamination. When you consider the hundreds of chemicals used in fracking operations, as well as naturally occurring radioactive materials and heavy metal in the shale, that’s disturbing. It’s even worse in light of recent research indicating that rates of cement failures in well casings – the only barrier between groundwater and disastrous contamination – are actually getting worse, according to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by a Cornell University research team. Researchers analyzed more than 75,000 official state of Pennsylvania inspections of more than 41,000 oil and gas wells drilled since 2000 and determined that over 40 percent of shale fracking wells drilled after 2009 would leak into the groundwater or atmosphere, higher rates than for older, conventional wells.

As science has begun to catch up, air pollution and water contamination are just two of many harms from fracking. Others include earthquakes, high levels of radiation, noise and light pollution, significant contributions to climate change, threats to agriculture, increased crime rates and a range of health impacts.

In spite of all this, the oil and gas industry’s influence is so politically significant that Obama, Congress and most state governments remain undaunted in supporting fracking. This undue influence is not new. FDR complained about it in the 1940’s: “The trouble with this country is that you can’t win an election without the oil bloc, and you can’t govern with it.”

That makes the recent New York win in a classic David versus Goliath matchup against oil and gas interests all the more important. Not only is it a great victory for local municipal rights, it’s a tremendous victory for tens of thousands of New Yorkers who have poured their hearts and souls into protecting their communities.

But perhaps most importantly, it should serve as a wake-up call to state and federal officials across the nation that continuing to ignore community impacts from fracking is not a viable strategy.

What’s next for New York? A statewide ban that can help lead our country in the right direction - away from fracking – because air pollution, water contamination, and the health and other problems caused by fracking do not conform to municipal boundaries.

In New York, it’s heartening that most elected officials have not abandoned science and caution by yielding to the oil and gas industry’s propaganda and political influence. Governor Andrew Cuomo has kept our state’s moratorium in place and has firmly and rightly said he wants to let the science decide. Recently, the New York State Assembly overwhelmingly passed a three-year moratorium based on the call from hundreds of health professionals and medical organizations given emerging trends in the data showing harm and the need for more study.

Now it’s imperative that officials in Washington, D.C. and in other states– including Congress and  Obama – wake up from the oil and gas industry-induced trance and provide true leadership on this issue. That means following the science, not the money. The health of communities across the nation and future generations is at stake. And that’s something worth fighting for.

Slottje, Esq. is the 2014 North America recipient of The Goldman Environmental Prize for her legal work on behalf of New York communities enacting local fracking bans. She lives in Ithaca, N.Y. with her husband David.

The article was originally published here.

FIGHT FRACKING and its TOXIC WASTE in AMHERST

4 WAYS TO FIGHT FRACKING & FRACKING WASTE
in AMHERST, NY
 

1) Attend Open Public Meetings to Ban Fracking in Amherst, NY
Williamsville Public Library, 5571 Main St, Williamsville, NY 14221

Upcoming meeting of Amherst Against Fracking:
Thursday, 09/11/2014 at 6 p.m.

The town of Amherst, NY must pass a local ban to safeguard our resources and health from the pollution and industrialization that fracking for natural gas brings to communities. Over 170 towns and cities across NY have stepped up to protect their residents from fracking, and now it's time for the Amherst Town Board to do the same. A town-wide ban on fracking & fracking waste disposal (including road spreading) would protect residents from exposure to harmful chemicals, airborne carcinogens, contaminated water, increased municipal costs, and the list goes on. All Amherst and Amherst-area residents are encouraged to join this coordinating meeting to become part of the local movement against fracking. 

 2) Sign the Online Petition to ban fracking in Amherst here: http://bit.ly/1piVgQY
When an Amherst, NY resident signs the petition, it immediately emails the Town Board!


3) Attend the Amherst Planning Board Meeting on Town-wide Fracking Ban
Thursday, August 21st at 6:30 p.m.
Town of Amherst Municipal Building
5583 Main Street, Williamsville, NY 14221

On Thursday, August 21st at 6:30 p.m. in Amherst Town Hall, the Amherst Planning Board will have a meeting where they will be discussing the fracking & fracking waste ban for the town. This meeting is a necessary step in the creation of a this new law because some of the language it contains pertains to planning and zoning. The Planning Board consists of a president and 6 members, none of whom are elected officials. This means that they will not be familiar with the harms of fracking or the legalities surrounding banning fracking/fracking waste on a town-level that we've explained in past Town Hall meetings. We need Amherst and Amherst-area residents to attend and give public comment on why fracking and it's waste must be banned in the town!

 Join the Facebook event & invite friends:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1437771853178114
  
4) Call the Amherst Town Board -- Tell Them They MUST Ban Dangerous Fracking and Toxic Fracking Waste 

Call Mondays – Fridays, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

 For detailed information, See This Flyer


Rita Yelda, Amherst Againgst Fracking / WNY Drilling Defense / Food & Water Watch 

Fracking Waste: A Radioactive Legacy for New York?

        New York Landfills Import Hazardous Fracking Waste -- TAKE ACTION to Protect Our  Environment and Health

By David Kowalski .

Marcellus Shale contains radioactive materials, including uranium and its decay products, radium and radon. Normally, the radioactive material is safely buried deep underground. However, shale gas drilling and fracking bring radioactivity in solids and liquid wastewater to the surface, posing a risk to the environment and public health if not properly managed.

Radium and radon can cause cancer if ingested or inhaled. Radium causes leukemia and bone cancer. Radon, a gaseous decay product of radium, is the leading cause of lung cancer in non-smokers.

In 2009, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) found radium levels in Marcellus Shale wastewater that are thousands of times greater than that allowed in drinking water by the Environmental Protection Agency, and up to 267 times the limit for safe discharge into the environment.

Exemption from a key federal regulation allows gas industry solid and liquid waste to pass as “non-hazardous.” However, it is becoming more widely appreciated that the waste can contain radioactive materials, in which case it should be regulated as "hazardous" waste and be managed accordingly.

Drilling and fracking waste in the form of sludge from Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale has triggered radiation alarms at municipal landfills. The sludge contains flowback fluids, frack sand and other fluids. Sludge must contain at least 20% solids according to the DEC, implying that it could contain as much as 80% flowback fluid and other fluids containing soluble radioactive material.

Liquid leachate from landfills is sent to wastewater treatment plants unequipped to monitor or remove radioactive materials, threatening drinking water sources.

Waste from drilling and fracking in Pennsylvania has been imported by 6 New York landfills  (see Map at bottom of page), including one in Niagara Falls that is not permitted to receive radioactive waste.

In West Virginia, tons of waste from Marcellus natural gas wells are going to municipal landfills, and radioactivity is leaching into surface water.

In the first four months of 2014, nine loads of Pennsylvania shale gas drilling waste were rejected by local landfills because of higher-than-normal radioactivity. Some of this radioactive drilling waste was shipped from Pennsylvania to West Virginia landfills that are not required to monitor radioactivity.

The gas industry has not identified methods to safely dispose the hazardous, radioactive waste and is shipping it to municipal landfills. It would be costly for industry to properly dispose the waste at a facility licensed to handle radioactive waste, but this is exactly what must be done to protect the environment and public health.

The industry is also failing to cleanup the hazardous, radioactive material in fracking wastewater. A peer-reviewed scientific paper reported radium levels of 200 times background in Pennsylvania’s Blacklick Creek sediments downstream of a specialized fracking wastewater treatment plant. A large portion of the radioactivity in the fracking wastewater appeared to have been removed before discharge into the waterway, but it is not clear where that radioactive material was disposed.

Avner Vengosh, the Duke University researcher who led the scientific study, said that "once you have a release of fracking fluid into the environment, you end up with a radioactive legacy." Contamination by radium, which has a half-life of 1602 years, will persist in the environment for many thousands of years.

Radioactive materials are present in a variety of gas-bearing formations, not just the Marcellus. Radioactivity can be present in the wastewater not only after high-volume fracking, but also following low-volume fracking, which is currently permitted in New York.

The DEC permits spreading fracking waste called 'brine' (salty wastewater) obtained from low-volume fracking wells and gas storage facilities on roads for de-icing, dust control and road stabilization as well as on land for dust control. Spreading applications of fracking brine have been approved for use in portions of at least 23 municipalities in 7 western New York counties: Erie, Niagara, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Genessee, Wyoming, and Seneca. Also, the New York State Department of Transportation Region 6 received approval to spread brine from natural gas storage on State roads in portions of Steuben, Allegany, Chemung, Schuyler, and Yates Counties.

Spreading of any fracking wastewater on roads or land should not be permitted without first testing for radioactive materials. If radium and radon are present, aerosols and dust containing radium could be inhaled along with radon gas. Radium in liquid runoff that makes its way into drinking water and fish could be ingested.

Radium and radon in waste from shale gas drilling and fracking pose a serious threat to the environment and public health. Cancers induced by ingestion or inhalation of these radioactive materials can take years to develop.

Regulation of radioactive waste in gas drilling is just as lax now as it was shown to be in investigative reports of 2011. The public should demand that the New York State Legislature pass laws to protect our water, land, air and health from the dire consequences of long-lived radioactive contamination.

NY State Senator Tkaczyk sponsored a common-sense bill to ban transportation of fracking waste from Pennsylvania and elsewhere into New York and ban disposal. However, the bill was defeated in the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee in a straight party-line vote (7 Nays by Republicans to 6 Ayes by Democrats).

A key bill sponsored by Senator Avella (S674), and the 'same as' bill sponsored by Assemblyman Sweeney (A1046), would close the loophole that allows fracking waste to be designated as "non-hazardous," despite the fact that it can be hazardous in ways described above. Fracking waste needs to be monitored. If it contains radioactive or toxic materials, it should be regulated as "hazardous" waste and be stored, transported, and disposed in ways that protect the environment and health. As stated in the bill, "If not treated properly, hazardous waste can, among other concerns, lead to contaminated air, drinking water, soil, and food."

TAKE ACTION: Contact your NY State Senator (Click Here) and Assembly Member (Click Here) and ask them to co-sponsor the bills (S674 and A1046) to protect our environment and health.

Public input is more important than ever given heavy campaign contributions to state legislators from the natural gas industry.

In the absence of New York State laws, the public has little choice but to call for municipal bans on fracking waste in order to protect our environment and health.

An abbreviated version of this article was published in The Buffalo News on May 29, 2014.

Sources of Pennsylvania drilling/fracking waste disposed at 6 New York landfills
Credits: Karen Edelstein, NYS Coordinator for FracTracker Alliance

Hydrofracking News Briefs

Rejected drilling waste taken to Idaho

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has confirmed that containers holding radioactive drill cuttings that were rejected in April by the Max Environmental Technologies disposal site in South Huntingdon Township have been transported to Idaho for disposal.

“Rice Energy has informed us that they have removed the roll-off boxes containing the TENORM material,” said John Poister, spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. “They have provided us documentation that the material was sent to a U.S. Ecology site in Idaho for proper disposal.” TENORM is an acronym for technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive material. It occurs when the levels of radioactivity that are present naturally are increased by human activities.

The Rice Energy truck carrying the drill cuttings from a Center Township well site set off the radiation warning system on April 19 while entering Max Environmental. The truck was immediately quarantined and tested to determine what type of radiation it contained, according to Poister. It was determined that the drill cuttings contained Radium 226 at a level of 96 microrem (mrem). Microrem is the measure of the biological effect of absorbed radiation.

Read more at SW Pennsylvania Observer-Reporter

 
Environmental group warns of fracking waste on NY roads

ALBANY—Despite a moratorium on fracking in New York State, more than a dozen municipalities have received state approval to spread a fracking byproduct on their roads.

The fluid, called production brine, can now be spread on roads in Wyoming, Erie, Cattaraugus, and Seneca counties, according to state documents obtained by Riverkeeper, a group that advocates for cleanup of the Hudson River.

An additional ten municipalities in Allegany and Steuben counties have received state permission to spread waste brine from natural gas storage.

Nine counties have banned the use of fracking brine on their roads because it contains pollutants, according to Riverkeeper scientist Bill Wegner. They include five along the Hudson River in the last year: Albany, Orange, Putnam, Westchester and Rockland.

Article and photo from Capital NY.

 
Texas drinking water makes pipes and plumbing radioactive

HOUSTON—Radiation has contaminated the underground pipes, water tanks, and plumbing that provide drinking water for much of Central Texas and the famed Texas Hill Country, according to concerned city officials in the region who have tested the pipes with Geiger counters. 

According to local officials, the contamination comes from years of exposure to drinking water that already tests over federal legal limits for radioactive radium. Of even more concern, they say, is that any water quality testing is done before the water runs through the contaminated pipes that could be adding even more radiation.

“It’s a serious concern,” City of Brady Manager James Minor said. “These pipes have so much radioactivity in them, metal recycling places refer to them as they’re ‘hot.’”

Read more at  KHOU TV

Protect Water & Health - Call Erie County Legislators

Risky procedures associated with shale gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and the disposal of its waste threaten drinking water purity and our health.

On December 12, 2013, the Erie County Legislature will vote on a proposed law to prohibit dangerous fracking, the disposal of its toxic and radioactive waste at county facilities and the spreading of fracking wastewater on roads.

Some legislators are still undecided about how they will vote. The proposed law might not be passed without additional pressure from concerned county residents.

Please call your legislator: Encourage them to co-sponsor the County ban on fracking and its waste (To find out the name of the legislator in your district and their office phone number, Click Here.)


Sample call script: “Hello my name is (full name) and I live in (town/city). I am calling to urge Legislator (last name) to co-sponsor the legislation to ban dangerous fracking and the toxic, radioactive waste it creates from entering Erie County.” 

If no one answers, you can leave a recorded message for your legislator.

Attend the vote if possible: Show your legislator that you care about clean drinking water and public health. The vote will occur on Thursday, December 12 at 2:00 pm in the County Legislature Chambers on the Fourth Floor of Old County Hall at 92 Franklin St., Buffalo (arrive early to allow time to pass through security). [MAP]

For additional information, visit WNY Drilling Defense.

Public Supports County Ban of Fracking and Drilling Waste

By David Kowalski  .

The Erie County Legislature is examining a proposed law to ban fracking on county-owned land, and to prohibit treating, disposal and road spreading of fracking and drilling wastes, which contain toxic and radioactive materials. 

About 75 people packed the Erie County Legislature Chambers for the final public hearing on the

                                             Photos / WNY Drilling Defense

proposed legislation.

Many of those in attendance signed up to speak and all who spoke were opposed to fracking and its waste. 

Erie County legislators said that throughout all of the meetings they've had about banning fracking on county land, no one has ever showed up to speak in favor of the fracking industry.

A box of petitions with 3,845 signatures of Erie County residents who support the proposed legislation was presented by Rita Yelda, organizer for New Yorkers Against Fracking and WNY Drilling Defense.

The Erie County Legislature will vote on the proposal on December 12th. Legislators Betty Jean Grant and Timothy Hogues cosponsored the legislation and said that they have five of the six votes needed for

County Legislators Betty Jean Grant and Timothy Hogues

it to pass.

"Nearly 15 counties across New York have stepped up to protect their residents against the dangers posed by fracking and fracking waste," Grant said. "Now it's Erie County's turn to take a stand and say that we will not allow fracking on our county land and we will now allow drilling waste to be stored or disposed of on county land."

Grant, however, noted that a ban would alleviate concerns over health issues related to fracking.
"This protects us from being exposed to the hundreds of dangerous chemicals used in the fracking process and from being exposed to the radioactive fracking waste," she said.

Below is a brief video (provided by WGRZ) that gives an overview of the proceedings:

If you are unable to view the video on your device, Click Here to view it at the WGRZ website.

Public Hearing: County Ban on Fracking & Its Waste

FINAL Public Hearing: Tuesday, December 3rd, 4:00 pm in County Legislature Chambers on the Fourth Floor of Old County Hall at 92 Franklin St., Buffalo.

Please attend to protect Erie County air, land, and water from fracking and its toxic waste.

LINK to Event Information is Here.

FRACKING: What's in Your Water?

Drilling wastes from the Marcellus Shale contain radioactive materials, including Radium and Radon. The NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation permits 5 upstate NY landfills to accept out-of-state Marcellus drilling wastes, even though none of the landfills has a license to handle Radioactive materials. 

One landfill is in Angelica, NY and another is in the city of Niagara Falls. Landfill water leachate is sent to water treatment plants that are not equipped to remove Radioactive materials, posing a threat to public health.

Ingestion of Radium in water can cause leukemia and bone cancer. Inhalation of Radon gas is the primary cause of lung cancer in non-smokers.

Handling, monitoring, transportation and disposal of radioactive waste is much more costly to the gas drilling industry than dealing with waste that is not identified as radioactive.

Efforts by NY Senate Democrats to prohibit imports of hazardous Marcellus drilling wastes into New York have been blocked by Senate Republicans. 

Transportation and disposal in New York of radioactive drilling waste from Pennsylvania and other states should be prohibited to protect public health.

Read about the above and additional threats to our water in the excellent report by Peter Mantius entitled New York Imports Pennsylvania’s Radioactive Fracking Waste Despite Falsified Water Tests.

Fracking News

Treatment Plants Accused of Illegally Disposing Radioactive Fracking Wastewater
A Pennsylvania industrial wastewater treatment plant has been illegally accepting oil and gas wastewater and polluting the Allegheny river with radioactive waste and other pollutants, according Clean Water Action, which announced today that it is suing the plant.
“Waste Treatment Corporation has been illegally discharging oil and gas wastewater since at least 2003, and continues to discharge such wastewater without authorization under the Clean Water Act and the Clean Streams Law,” the notice of intent to sue delivered by Clean Water Action reads.
State officials also discovered that the sediments immediately downstream from the plant were tainted with high levels of radium-226, radium-228 and uranium. Those particular radioactive elements are known to be found at especially high levels in wastewater from Marcellus shale gas drilling and fracking, and state regulators have warned that the radioactive materials would tend to accumulate in river sediment downstream from plants accepting Marcellus waste. Read more at EcoWatch.


Fracking Debris Ten Times Too Radioactive for Hazardous Waste Landfill
A truck carrying cuttings from a Pennsylvania fracking site was quarantined at a hazardous-waste landfill and sent back after its contents triggered a radiation alarm showing the load was emitting 96 microrem of radiation per hour; the landfill rejects waste with levels above 10 microrems. The radioactive material from a site in the Marcellus Shale formation was radium 226, a common contaminant from the decay of uranium-238 that tends to accumulate in bone and can get into water. Officials said “everything was by the book in this case" because the alarm went off as designed; the fracking operators can now either re-apply at that landfill or take their deadly waste to an out-of-state facility that accepts it - and yes, they exist. The scariest thing here: Pennsylvania, which is currently studying radiation contamination associated with fracking wells, claims to be the only state that even requires landfills to monitor radiation levels.
Read more at Common Dreams. 

Radioactive waste rejected by Pa. hauled to Idaho
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection says containers of radioactive drilling waste rejected by a southwestern Pennsylvania landfill have been hauled to a U.S. Ecology site in Idaho for safe disposal.
Read more Here.

Fate of 200,000 public fracking comments unclear 
ALBANY — New York's proposed rules for hydraulic fracturing drew an unprecedented response in January, when more than 200,000 comments were submitted by the public to the state Department of Environmental Conservation. Seven months later, the fate of those comments is unknown, with the DEC refusing to say whether it will respond to the concerns raised in the submissions or allow them to sit unanswered.
Read more at Press Connects. 

Oil and Gas Spills: Many mishaps among drillers, but few fines 
If Kristi Mogen causes a crash on the road, she knows she'll probably get a ticket and have to pay a fine. 
So she's frustrated that Wyoming officials didn't fine Chesapeake Energy Corp. for an April 2012 well blowout near her home outside Douglas, Wyo. The ruptured gas well spewed gas and chemicals for three days, forcing her and her neighbors to evacuate their homes.
Read more at EnergyWire News.


FRAC Act Re-introduced to Senate
Amid widespread fears that the boom in fracking for natural gas poses a growing array of environmental threats, some members of Congress are making a new effort to reverse a 2005 law that exempted the industry from regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Read more at Environmental Working Group.

Ohio lawmakers who oppose fracking tax have gotten lots of money from frackers 
Oil and gas companies have been on a fracking spree in Ohio for a couple of years now, but they’re not bringing many jobs to the state, so Republican Gov. John Kasich has been trying to get them to give back in another way: via a fracking tax. Read more at Grist.

Methane leaks may burst natural-gas bubble
President Obama’s climate-change plan calls for a closer look at the scope of leaks from gas wells, pipelines and compressor plants. Depending on what is found, new regulations could be imposed.
Duke University researcher Rob Jackson trolled through Washington, D.C., searching for evidence that natural gas is not quite the climate champion President Obama claimed last month.
He was replicating a study he did in Boston, measuring leaks from creaky natural-gas pipes. In addition to being a possible safety risk, methane, the key component of natural gas, is 25 times as potent a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide. And leaks may undercut much of the climate benefits of gas.
Read more at The Seattle Times.

Former Mobil VP Warns of Fracking and Climate Change 
Few people can explain gas and oil drilling with as much authority as Louis W. Allstadt. As an executive vice president of Mobil Oil who ran the company's exploration and production operations in the western hemisphere before he retired in 2000.
Allstadt has become an indispensable guide for one of the country's most powerful environmental movements, New York's grass-roots anti-fracking resistance. Recently he was elected a Cooperstown Trustee.
"The fracking that's going on right now is the real wake-up call on just what extreme lengths are required to pull oil or gas out of the ground now that most of the conventional reservoirs have been exploited - at least those that are easy to access," Allstadt said. Read more at TruthOut.


Gas drillers cancel lease with NE Pa. landowners
Two energy companies are pulling out of northeastern Pennsylvania, where a three-year moratorium on gas drilling has infuriated landowners who say it’s now cost them a windfall of more than $187 million. 
Hess Corp. and Newfield Exploration Co. sent a letter to landowners that notified them their leases are no longer in effect, according to the Northern Wayne Property Owners Alliance, which negotiated a master lease on behalf of more than 1,300 families and businesses. Read more at Ithaca Journal

Art installation brings you face to face with fracking 
Fracking hell or fracking bliss? Fracking Futures, an art installation at Liverpool's FACT gallery, gives visitors a chance to decide what they think of this controversial gas extraction technique. Its miniaturised fracking "rig" simulates the sounds, tremors and flames that a real one might produce, and appears to drill right through the gallery floor.
Read more at New Scientist.

Videos: Exclusive interviews of Josh Fox on The Daily Show
Part 1, "Gasland Part II" director Josh Fox disputes the idea that natural gas is a boon for the environment.  (06:39)
Part 2, Josh Fox argues that government regulatory agencies are in the natural gas industry's pocket.  (04:25)
Part 3, Fox warns against the natural gas industry's tendency to address engineering problems with PR solutions.  (04:30)

Call for Erie County Ban on Fracking and Radioactive Waste

To read the Text version of this post, Click Here.

[Click image to enlarge]

A Permanent Radioactive Disposal Facility in Lewiston? Provide Public Input Online

The Restoration Advisory Board* is conducting a Public Survey regarding the following question and related issues: 

QUESTION: Should the Federal Government create a permanent radioactive disposal facility in Lewiston, NY? 

BACKGROUND: Provided by the Restoration Advisory Board
The Lake Ontario Ordnance Works (LOOW) consists of approximately 7,500 acres of land, located in the Towns of Lewiston and Porter, NY acquired by the federal government in the early 1940’s. The “Developed Area” (see Map) of the LOOW was used for military weapons production-related operations started during WWII.

Today, the federal government no longer owns the LOOW properties, with the exception of a National Guard Weekend Training Site, and the Niagara Falls Storage Site (NFSS, see Map).

The Niagara Falls Storage Site still houses radioactive waste material from atomic weapons production in the 1940’s and 1950’s. Residues are so radioactive, they must be handled remotely by equipment rather than humans. If left in place, the NFSS radioactive residues would pose a major environmental/health hazard to the Niagara region for thousands of years.

The Army Corps of Engineers is in the process of determining whether to remove some or all of the radioactive residues and wastes from the Niagara Falls Storage Site, and what standard of clean up the NFSS should undergo. 

PUBLIC SURVEY: Please visit the LOOW-RAB Website, and select answers to the 3 questions provided.

*The Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) is a forum for the public and all stakeholders for the exchange of information as well as open and independent dialogue concerning the environmental investigation and remediation activities at the Lake Ontario Ordnance Works.

Radioactive Fracking Waste Threatens Drinking Water

In 2009, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation analyzed 13 samples of fracking wastewater from gas drilling sites in the Marcellus Shale and found levels of radium, a radioactive element, as high as 267 times the limit safe for discharge into the environment and thousands of times the limit safe for people to drink.

While New York is currently under a drilling moratorium, Pennsylvania has had a gas drilling boom over the last few years and there is much that can be learned from data on radioactivity in fracking wastewater from Marcellus Shale drilling in that state.

The NY Times reviewed 30,000 pages of records on drilling in more than 200 Pennsylvania gas wells over the last 3 years. The records were obtained from federal, state and industry sources.

The review revealed that levels of radium, uranium or other radioactive elements in 116 gas wells were 100 times higher than federal drinking water standards, and in 15 wells, 1000 times higher (see Map). The findings confirm and extend those made from radioactivity data from the limited testing done in New York.

Pennsylvania Map. Brown circles reflect radioactivity levels above the federal standard in fracking wastewater at gas wells, and larger circles indicate higher radioactivity (Gross Alpha). Blue lines are major rivers.
Sewage treatment plants in three states, including New York, accepted Pennsylvania fracking wastewater, despite the fact that the plants were not equipped to monitor and remove radioactivity. As a result, treated water of questionable quality was discharged into waterways and taken up into downstream plants that provide drinking water. The downstream plants were also not equipped to monitor and remove radioactivity.
The finding that fracking wastewater contains high levels of radioactivity that may be entering the drinking water raises serious concern about the effects on public health. Where tested, much of the radioactivity is from radium, which can cause cancer when ingested by drinking water or by eating fish or farm produce that is contaminated.
In 2009, the radioactivity risks prompted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to advise New York that sewage treatment plants should not accept drilling waste with radium levels that are 12 or more times the federal standard for drinking water. Also, they should not discharge water with radioactivity higher than the standard.

Testing for radioactivity in drinking water is required by federal law only at drinking-water intake plants. Unfortunately, it is not done often enough to keep pace with the rapidly growing discharges of drilling wastewater. In fact, most drinking water plants in Pennsylvania had not tested for radioactivity since at least 2005, before the gas drilling boom occurred there.
Following the recent NY Times report about high levels of radium, the EPA took action to inform Pennsylvania in a letter dated March 7, 2011 indicating that it is critical to investigate the presence of radioactive elements, and to inform the public as to whether, and at what levels, they occur in their water supply. Within 30 days, EPA wants a sampling plan to be developed and initial samples collected. The EPA said that such knowledge will be the basis for imposing the controls necessary to ensure that public health and the aquatic environment are protected.

The PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has recently stated that radium in rivers is negligible, although critics indicate that the DEP can’t guarantee people will not be exposed to radioactive drinking water unless DEP is sampling everywhere all the time.

A fracking ban or at least a hazardous waste designation on fracking wastewater would protect our drinking water from contamination by radioactive elements and toxic chemicals released from shale, and additional toxics added to fracking fluid.
Links to Sources:
- NY Times: Regulation Lax as Gas Wells’ Tainted Water Hits Rivers - NY Times: Pennsylvania Map - US EPA: Letter from EPA (PDF)
- ProPublica: Is New York’s Marcellus Shale Too Hot to Handle?
- Pennsylvania DEP: Radium in rivers is negligible- Buffalo News: Faulty figure on ‘fracking’ recycling linked to National Fuel subsidiary