North Dakota Fracking Waste Is Radioactive!
By James Donahue
A shocking report by Alexis Bonogofsky that recently appeared in Truthout reveals that the crude oil produced by North Dakota fracking has been creating another side effect that promises to be more dangerous than potential pipeline oil leaks in local lakes and rivers. It seems that the very process of fracking, at least in the Bakken field, is occurring in a geologic formation that contains both oil and gas deposits but also naturally occurring radionuclides. These include uranium, thorium, radium, potassium, lead-210 and polonium-210. Thus the waste from the Bakken fracking is laced with radioactive material, which is being dumped in North Dakota landfills.
Determining dangerous levels of radioactive waste is a complex matter. The Bonogofsky report explains that radionuclide waste is technically called “Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (NORM) and are not controlled by state law, at least in North Dakota, and is unregulated by the federal government. Yet it is known to affect human health.
The report noted that NORM is found in drilling equipment, pipes used in drilling and in “filter socks” or bags used to filter solids from fluids pumped from the ground during the fracking process. Those filter socks alone have been found to contain from five to 80 picocuries per filter. Each curie represents about one gram of radium, the radioactive component found in wastewater during the fracking and drilling process.
A few curies of radiation may not sound like much but a 2014 story in Environmental Health Perspectives noted that TENORM waste in fracking fluid is extremely dangerous when inhaled or ingested. The story said that “when inhaled, radon can cause lung cancer, and there is some evidence it may cause other cancers such as leukemia. Consuming radium in drinking water can cause lymphoma, bon cancer and leukemias. Radium also emits gamma rays which cause cancer risk throughout the body.”
There is a general agreement among scientists that there is no such thing as a “safe” dose of radiation. And the small doses are perhaps the least understood.
It has only been recently that landowners began learning about the radiated material being freely dumped in local landfills and brought this issue to light. In their research it was learned that the North Dakota Health Council had raised the allowable picocurie level of the waste delivered to landfills from five to 50 picocuries. This was done at the request of the oil companies and without public knowledge. When landowners packed a Health Council meeting in Bismarck in 2015 in an effort to get this ruling reversed, they were ignored.
It has since been learned that the radiation level of much of the waste being dumped in the landfills exceeds the 50 picocurie limit. Because no testing is being done, no one knows how severe the radiation is.
The landfill where all of the fracas began is a massive one located in McKenzie County. It is the IHD waste disposal plant, labeled by the state as a “special” waste landfill where it is permitted to dump oil field waste. But it is a 10-stories high stack of landfill waste located in the middle of a miles-wide oxbow of the Missouri River. This is the very river that has been part of the controversy concerning an oil pipeline at Standing Rock.
Rancher Larry Novak, whose family has farmed the land at or near this landfill for over a century, says there are rural water lines passing under the landfill and people living within a mile of it. They are breathing the dust blowing from that pile of waste every day, yet “the health department won’t lift a finger for us,” he said.
The McKenzie County landfill is not the only landfill that has been receiving this radioactive waste from the Bakken field, and no one knows how much radioactive waste is coming from all of the other fracking sites now located throughout the nation.
The Bonogofsky story said the “illegal radioactive waste-dumping in North Dakota is widespread. Because oil companies were not legally allowed to dispose of radioactive oil field waste that was higher than 5 picocuries in landfills, companies trucked the waste to licensed facilities in Idaho, Colorado and Montana. Shipping costs ate into profits and some companies began dumping radioactive waste in abandoned buildings, on the side of dirt roads or in the middle of fields. Others concealed contaminated materials in non-radioactive loads in order to sneak them into landfills.”
Those filter socks, laced with radioactive material, have been found on the open prairie, and even on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. One abandoned service station was found filled with the socks.
This report just zeroed in on the North Dakota Bakken field fracking site. Fracking is now occurring all over the nation. No one knows how much radioactive material is coming from those fields and where it is being deposited.
By James Donahue
A shocking report by Alexis Bonogofsky that recently appeared in Truthout reveals that the crude oil produced by North Dakota fracking has been creating another side effect that promises to be more dangerous than potential pipeline oil leaks in local lakes and rivers. It seems that the very process of fracking, at least in the Bakken field, is occurring in a geologic formation that contains both oil and gas deposits but also naturally occurring radionuclides. These include uranium, thorium, radium, potassium, lead-210 and polonium-210. Thus the waste from the Bakken fracking is laced with radioactive material, which is being dumped in North Dakota landfills.
Determining dangerous levels of radioactive waste is a complex matter. The Bonogofsky report explains that radionuclide waste is technically called “Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (NORM) and are not controlled by state law, at least in North Dakota, and is unregulated by the federal government. Yet it is known to affect human health.
The report noted that NORM is found in drilling equipment, pipes used in drilling and in “filter socks” or bags used to filter solids from fluids pumped from the ground during the fracking process. Those filter socks alone have been found to contain from five to 80 picocuries per filter. Each curie represents about one gram of radium, the radioactive component found in wastewater during the fracking and drilling process.
A few curies of radiation may not sound like much but a 2014 story in Environmental Health Perspectives noted that TENORM waste in fracking fluid is extremely dangerous when inhaled or ingested. The story said that “when inhaled, radon can cause lung cancer, and there is some evidence it may cause other cancers such as leukemia. Consuming radium in drinking water can cause lymphoma, bon cancer and leukemias. Radium also emits gamma rays which cause cancer risk throughout the body.”
There is a general agreement among scientists that there is no such thing as a “safe” dose of radiation. And the small doses are perhaps the least understood.
It has only been recently that landowners began learning about the radiated material being freely dumped in local landfills and brought this issue to light. In their research it was learned that the North Dakota Health Council had raised the allowable picocurie level of the waste delivered to landfills from five to 50 picocuries. This was done at the request of the oil companies and without public knowledge. When landowners packed a Health Council meeting in Bismarck in 2015 in an effort to get this ruling reversed, they were ignored.
It has since been learned that the radiation level of much of the waste being dumped in the landfills exceeds the 50 picocurie limit. Because no testing is being done, no one knows how severe the radiation is.
The landfill where all of the fracas began is a massive one located in McKenzie County. It is the IHD waste disposal plant, labeled by the state as a “special” waste landfill where it is permitted to dump oil field waste. But it is a 10-stories high stack of landfill waste located in the middle of a miles-wide oxbow of the Missouri River. This is the very river that has been part of the controversy concerning an oil pipeline at Standing Rock.
Rancher Larry Novak, whose family has farmed the land at or near this landfill for over a century, says there are rural water lines passing under the landfill and people living within a mile of it. They are breathing the dust blowing from that pile of waste every day, yet “the health department won’t lift a finger for us,” he said.
The McKenzie County landfill is not the only landfill that has been receiving this radioactive waste from the Bakken field, and no one knows how much radioactive waste is coming from all of the other fracking sites now located throughout the nation.
The Bonogofsky story said the “illegal radioactive waste-dumping in North Dakota is widespread. Because oil companies were not legally allowed to dispose of radioactive oil field waste that was higher than 5 picocuries in landfills, companies trucked the waste to licensed facilities in Idaho, Colorado and Montana. Shipping costs ate into profits and some companies began dumping radioactive waste in abandoned buildings, on the side of dirt roads or in the middle of fields. Others concealed contaminated materials in non-radioactive loads in order to sneak them into landfills.”
Those filter socks, laced with radioactive material, have been found on the open prairie, and even on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. One abandoned service station was found filled with the socks.
This report just zeroed in on the North Dakota Bakken field fracking site. Fracking is now occurring all over the nation. No one knows how much radioactive material is coming from those fields and where it is being deposited.