RADIOACTIVITY IN MARCELLUS SHALE HYDRAULIC FRACKING WASTE. IS THERE A RISK TO HUMAN HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT?

RADIOACTIVITY IN MARCELLUS SHALE HYDRAULIC FRACKING WASTE. IS THERE A RISK TO HUMAN HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT?

It has been known for a very long time that the Marcellus Shale has some very high levels of radioactivity and that the waste byproducts needed to be handled safely and properly. Unfortunately, not much precaution has been taken in the various states where oil & gas exploration has been occurring for many years now. The biggest mistake, in our view, was to use the brine water from fracking operations to perform de-icing on the roads, to fail to perform a radiological exposure monitoring, to send the wastewater laden with radioactivity to the local wastewater treatment plants, and to fail to take precautions regarding the disposal of the miscellaneous waste produced during waste water handling and/or treatment.

Thank god the practice of using the brine water for deicing was recently stopped due to efforts from private citizens, pending studies. The PA DEP has also instructed the various wastewater treatment plants not to accept fracking wastewater for treatment, but the damage may have already been done in some locations where more than 200-times the background levels of radioactivity have been detected by Duke University researchers.

Based on data collected by New York State, private firms like us and other investigators, have forced even the State of Pennsylvania to conduct studies on the risk to human health and the environment posed by fracking waste produced in the Marcellus Shale. Results of the NYS DEC’s initial Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (NORM) analysis of Marcellus brine produced in New York showed that the US EPA’s drinking water standards were exceeded by 1,000-fold or so. For example, at a fracking well in Steuben County the Gross Alpha radiation was measured at almost 18,000 pCi/L, while the federal MCL is 15 pCi/L. In addition, while the combined Radium 226 and Radium 228 MCL is 5 pC/L; for the same fracking well in Steuben County, the test results showed a result of 3,300 pC/L. These samples were collected in late 2008 and 2009 from vertical gas wells in the Marcellus formation.

It is very crucial to note that the test results do not include measurements for radon gas which is responsible for much of the risk posed to human health, mostly indoors. Radon gas has been detected inside people’s homes at levels exceeding the US EPA recommended levels by several-fold. For example, in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, the average indoor radon levels is 13.2 pCi/L, while the average national indoor radon level is 1.3 pCi/L. The US EPA has stated that there is a need to remedy the problem as soon as possible when the radon level is 4 pCi/L or more.

The data accumulated to date indicate the need to collect additional samples of production brine to assess the need for mitigation and to require appropriate handling and treatment options, including possible radioactive materials licensing. The NYSDOH will require the well operator to obtain a radioactive materials license for the facility when exposure rate measurements associated with scale accumulation in or on piping, drilling and brine storage equipment exceed 50 microR/hr (μR/hr). A license may be required for facilities that will concentrate NORM during pre-treatment or treatment of brine.

Mobilization of Radioactive Elements during Oil and Gas Production

Analysis of oil and gas from many different wells has shown that the long-lived uranium and thorium isotopes are not mobilized from the rock formations that contain them. However Ra-226, Ra-224, Ra-228 and Pb-210 are mobilized, and appear mainly in the water co-produced during oil and gas extraction. These isotopes and their radioactive progeny can then precipitate out of solution, along with sulphate and carbonate deposits as scale or sludge in pipes and related equipment. Radon-222 (i.e., the radon gas) is the immediate decay product of Radium-226 and preferentially follows gas lines. It has a half-life of just 3.5 hours and it decays through several rapid steps to Pb-210 which can therefore build up as a thin film in gas extraction equipment. Another area of accumulation of highly radioactive waste is in the filter socks being used by the treatment contractors and the treatment sludge. Some of the radioactivity results are 10,000-fold greater than background.

As is reported by the World Nuclear Association, the level of reported radioactivity varies significantly, depending on the radioactivity of the reservoir rock and the salinity of the water co-produced from the well. The higher the salinity the more NORM is likely to be mobilized. Since salinity often increase with the age of a well, old wells tend to exhibit higher NORM levels than younger ones.

Table 1 gives the characteristics of NORM produced during oil and gas extraction and some indicative measurements of concentrations.

Table 1: NORM in oil and gas production

Source: IAEA 2003, Safety Report Series 34.

If the scale has an activity of 30,000 Bq/kg it is 'contaminated', according to country regulations. This means that for Ra-226 scale (decay series of 9 progeny) the level of Ra-226 itself is 3300 Bq/kg. For Pb-210 scale (decay series of 3) the level is 10,000 Bq/kg. These figures refer to the scale, not the overall mass of pipes or other material.

Fracking (hydraulic fracturing) for gas production releases significant NORM in some geological environments, both in drill cuttings, treatment sludge, treatment equipment (such as filter socks) and water. In the US Marcellus shale in Pennsylvania, New York and West Virginia (a black shale) typically activity is about 370 Bq/kg including high levels of radium-226, giving up to 625 Bq/L in brine and up to 66 Bq/L in other water returned to the surface. USGS figures for brine are reported as 377 Bq/L Ra-226 and 46 Bq/L for Ra-228. Other reports related wastewater here to drinking water standard (0.0185 Bq/L) and said it was 300 times US NRC limits for industrial wastewater discharge.

NORM in the oil and gas industry poses a problem to workers particularly during maintenance, waste transport and processing, and decommissioning. In particular Pb-210 deposits and films, as a beta emitter, is only a concern when pipe internals become exposed. Internal exposures can be minimized by hygiene practices.

Source: http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Safety-and-Security/Radiation-and-Health/Naturally-Occurring-Radioactive-Materials-NORM/

What are EPA’s drinking water regulations for radionuclides?

In 1974, Congress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act. This law requires EPA to determine the level of contaminants in drinking water at which no adverse health effects are likely to occur. These non-enforceable health goals, based solely on possible health risks and exposure over a lifetime with an adequate margin of safety, are called maximum contaminant level goals (MCLG). Contaminants are any physical, chemical, biological or radiological substances or matter in water.

EPA sets the enforceable regulation, called a maximum contaminant level (MCL), as close to the health goals (the MCLG) as possible, considering cost, benefits and the ability of public water systems to detect and remove contaminants using suitable treatment technologies.

The Pennsylvania DEP Radioactivity Study

After several years of denying that radioactivity in the Marcellus Shale poses any significant risk to human health and the environment, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) decided in January 2013 to test the waste products from natural gas production for radioactivity. In addition to analyzing wastewater from hydraulic fracking, the study also will analyze radioactivity in drill cuttings, drilling mud, drilling equipment, treatment solids and sediments at well pads, wastewater treatment and disposal facilities and landfill leachate, among others.

The study also will test radiation levels for the equipment involved in the transportation, storage and disposal of drilling wastes. PADEP will focus on the quantity of “naturally occurring radioactive materials” (NORM) and ”technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive material” (TENORM). NORM can become TENORM when materials are mixed together, moved, or otherwise changed.

The study will examine seven areas:

• ambient air
• drill cuttings
• natural gas
• natural gas processing pipes and equipment
• waste water generated from drilling sites
• sludge resulting from the processing of waste water from the well pad development process
• landfill leachate

Among the substances to be tested for are Radium-226, Radium-228, Uranium-238, Uranium-235, Uranium-234, Thorium-232, Radon-220 and Radon-222 (radon gas). The report should be released by the end of this year.

Shales, like the Marcellus, Barnett, and Utica, were all deposited in basins millions of years ago

Radioactivity is typically elevated in shale relative to other rock types and the Marcellus Shale is especially enriched. Drilling and production of shale has the ability to mobilize radioactivity towards the surface where it could either concentrate or infiltrate aquifers. Shales currently undergoing natural gas extraction - like the Marcellus, Barnett, and Utica - were all deposited in basins millions of years ago (about 390 million years ago is the current estimate). Basins were geographical low points on continents flooded by marine water when the seas rose. Imagine the entire Marcellus Shale in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky being the bottom of an ancient sea, filled with marine life (both plants and animals). When these ancient living organisms died, they decomposed and became buried under fine sediments. The ancient seas then receded. The high temperatures and pressures then created the oil and gas from this ancient marine life.

During the millions of years that passed, the dead plants and animals slowly decomposed into organic materials and formed fossil fuels. Different types of fossil fuels were formed depending on what combination of animal and plant debris was present, how long the material was buried, and what conditions of temperature and pressure existed when they were decomposing.

For example, oil and natural gas were created from organisms that lived in the water and were buried under ocean or river sediments. Long after the great prehistoric seas and rivers vanished, heat, pressure and bacteria combined to compress and "cook" the organic material under layers of silt. In most areas, a thick liquid called oil formed first, but in deeper, hot regions underground, the cooking process continued until natural gas was formed. Over time, some of this oil and natural gas began working its way upward through the earth's crust until they ran into rock formations called "caprocks" that are dense enough to prevent them from seeping to the surface. It is from under these caprocks that most oil and natural gas used to be produced today, until the price of natural gas rose and the oil & gas industry found it economical to use the fracturing technology to extract oil and gas from shales.

Did you know that coal was formed from the dead remains of trees, ferns and other plants that lived 300 to 400 million years ago? About ten feet of prehistoric plant debris was needed to make one foot of coal?

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Because of their similar geologic origins, certain generalizations can be made of these gas-bearing shales; they are all made of fine sedimentary particles and organic matter, have concentrated amounts of brine water (sodium chloride and other dissolved chemicals), have naturally-occurring radioactive materials trapped within them, and have low permeability.

The following schematic illustrates how the radioactivity in shales increased over time. Since the Marcellus shale, for example, has high organic content (that gives the shale its black color) ranging from 2 to 14 percent or so, the radioactive particles will also be adsorbed by the shale, in addition to the particles precipitating on the shale. These two mechanisms explain the significant radioactivity of the Marcellus shale. Disturbing these shale deposits and bringing them to the surface or bringing the associated gas to the surface, will create additional exposure to radioactive material during drilling, wastewater treatment, waste handling, gas storage and transmission, and so on. Some of the radioactivity measurements that have been reported by others and also measured by us indicate that caution is required while a monitoring program is developed. Thus, the concern of the citizens is real and must be addressed by the oil & gas industry and the responsible government units.

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