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April 18, 2014 08:31 AM UTC
26 Comments
If the chemicals used to frack weren't enough reason to draw support for a study, now we get to add radiation. From Scott Radig, director of the North Dakota Health Department’s Division of Waste Management.
I'm no expert, but that sounds a bit overstated. No doubt, Ralphie will correct me if I'm wrong.
Radium is a decay product of uranium with a relatively short half-life. So you won't find more radium than uranium. While shale tends to have more uranium than many other rocks, it's generally not regarded as a hazardous material.
Radium decays to form radon (a gas), which can accumulate in confined spaces. This requires some mitigation. I imagine that a freshly fracked well could release a fair amount of radon (the same way it releases natural gas), but this would rapidly dissipate away from the well site. It could, however, present an occupational hazard for drillers and roughnecks.
From the Bismarck Tribune – but I defer to Ralphie.
I think it's reasonably accurate, ajb. But here's a little more from an O&G standpoint. Radium tends to accumulate at the bottom of well casings. It's fairly soluble in reducing conditions, but when the hydrogen sulfide in formation water oxidizes, the radium precipitates out as radium sulfate. And it accumulates in evaporation ponds where production water is evaporated.
That's my understanding. Its a problem with drilling wastes specifically because it becomes concentrated in evaporation ponds
Thanks, Ralphie et al.
I didn't know that the radium gets concentrated in the process. That changes the equation.
Ra-226 has a half-life of just over 1600 years and while it is indeed less abundant than Uranium, it is also 2.7 million times more radioactive in part because of the difference in half-life. Radium is the substance that was banned as a luminescent paint back in the 1960's due to its strong radioactivity – and its acceptance into the body as a Calcium substitute.
If the fracking process concentrates it and it winds up on equipment and clothing – yeah, that's not so great. I'm guessing the North Dakota Division of Waste Management isn't overloaded with flaming liberals; if they're concerned, we should all be.
And it's an alpha emitter. Alphas are big heavy particles (helium nuclei) that won't even go through a sheet of paper, but when inhaled or ingested they can do a lot of damage. The ladies who worked in radium dial factories used to lick the tips of their brushes. Many of them ended up with tongue cancers.
Looking for consistency in statements from industry is futile. To whit, local control: On one hand oilies say: '"ractivists want to fool Coloradans into voting for something they know will never pass (a 'fracking ban') via local control," and on the other they say: "OMFG! Local control = a total statewide fracking ban and we will all freeze in the dark jobless." So the obvious question arises: if Coloradans statewide won't follow crazy Peoples' Republic of Boulder's (and Longmont, and Broomfield, and LaFayette, and Ft Collins) lead since it's too extreme, why is local control a threat at all?
"Hmmm. …………LOOK! LOOK! Did you see the press release on our new astroturf group? Colorado Mother-Frackers? http://www.FrackingAppliePie.com ??"
There was a lit drop in my mail box this week that may well be the largest ever that I've received. It's from those folks who just want lots of playgrounds for our children with acres of green greass and pure, fresh water flowing from the outdoor water fountain, Coloradans for Responsible Energy Development. I'm not kidding, it's about 8" x 14", full color, heavy paper with a near-laminated feel. Picture of POTUS on one side with his January 28 quote from SOTU; the flip side a beautiful, remote mountain lake with the words, "….preserve our planet for generations to come". And, they have an 800 number for you if the ad slick didn't get you hook, line and sinker.
I'm all for responsible energy development – a holisitic system that not only includes the kinds of controls, local and state, that protect our natural environment – but one that pays a just severance tax. That would be the 'responsible' thing to support.
I'm not going to dive in to these numbers today, but from the Colorado Consumer Coalition webpage:
So are they trying to convince Coloradans the industry employs 600,000 people at an average wage of $23.16? I understand all they really want is to make sure our monthly electric bills don't go up and all – with a 'Trojan Horse' plot twist ala Local Control:
Oh, the subterfuge money can buy….
There are 2,243,000 workers in Colorado. Doing the math, one finds this claim is that more than one of every 4 workers in Colorado works in the oil and gas business.
The things you learn….
Come on now, Duke…workers doing oil changes, waiters and waittresses putting olive oil on salads, gas station clerks, oil masseuses, oxygen tank fillers and deliverers…surely these can be counted as working in the oil and gas industries?
It probably includes people like me as well.
I am getting ready to go buy some gas for my lawn mower right now.
Better get plenty, ct. If the Local Control Initiative passes, you won't be able to buy gasoline in Colorado, you know.
"The Gap"…
You realize, of course, that this was probably just a thumb in the eye of his party; a vote made solely for vindictive reasons. I think Wright is still smarting from being squeezed out.
At any rate, I'm glad the bill passed.
That was my take, Ralphie. Sort of an “up yours” to the leadership.
Yep.
(And to the Kathy Halls and Diane Schwenkes of the world)
Years ago, I foolishly dated a young man who thought it was clever to say, "Don't ask the question if you don't want to hear the truth.".
Studying the health effects of fracking seems like a no brainier to me. How can we regulate safely if we don't have all the answers. Being afraid to study the issue infers that those who voted against this study already know there are harmful effects from fracking but ignorance is bliss. This reminds me of last year when Sen. Irene Aguilar carried a bill creating an interim committee to study the state implementing a health care cooperative. Even the Democrats were afraid and killed it. But how do we understand anything without serious inquiry first?
How about this cliche to explain O&G's opposition: What you don't know can't hurt me.
On the other hand, what you don't let me know can hurt me, as well as future generations.
Where does anyone think the Koch boys and their ilk want to dump the waste chemicals from their other operations??? Why can't we get a list of chemicals that are being injected into our water??? I don't believe there is a "secret" ingrediant in their injection material…other than they are probably banned by the EPA…and the clean water act…
The oil and gas industry is exempt from the Clean Water Act…and the Safe Drinking Water Act. There are, in fact, many "secret" ingredients in fracking fluid. You cannot get a list, because those recipes are considered "proprietary" and can be protected from disclosure.
Davies' suggestion is just right…"What you don't know, can't hurt me"…a polluters credo if I ever heard one.