Here & There Column 1-19-10

Marcellus Shale High In Radioactivity?

With the State of New York apparently not listening to calls to stop or slow down gas drilling a relatively new subject that will have to be addressed is the question that Marcellus shale could be naturally high in radioactivity.
If this is a proven fact making the disposal of waste water from the drilling could become a severe problem.
A story released last fall by Abraham Lustgarten in ProPublica, the nonprofit online investigative news producer, said that the DEC has analyzed 13 samples of waste water brought up from the drilling's and found that the samples contain radium 226 in much higher levels than are considered safe....and in some cases 267 times the level safe for discharge into the environment.
This might be a severe problem and if continued testing proves that initial finding, gas companies could be saddled with increased regulations and expenses for treating the waste water.
The waste water is considered the most troublesome issue attached to drilling in the Northeast. The question here is will the DEC find it difficult to establish safe levels of exposure, since ordinary exposure from the sun, soil and bricks in homes can be 400 milligrams a year.
The ProPublica article notes that naturally occurring radioactive materials called NORM, are common in gas and oil drilling water, particularly in brine, the water that lies in the shale and is brought to the surface with recovered drill water.
Radium gives off radon gas, which can cause cancer to people in an enclosed space.
In gas drilling operations in other parts of the country operators inject the waste water back into played out wells for storage but that is unlikely to happen in the Northeast.
Disposal and treatment of waste water in Marcellus shale drilling's could become a major issue and one of which should be carefully studied and not ignored or swept under the carpet by any agency.