This aspect of the
oil and gas industry
is mostly unregulated,
under-reported and
largely unknown
to the public.
It was highlighted after
a one and a half year
investigation
by Justin Nobel,
writing in Rolling Stone.
When a well
is drilled,
it produces
a ton of brine,
a salty substance
that comes out
of the ground.
Shale wells can produce
as much as ten times
more brine than they do
oil and gas.
While oil and gas
are useful,
the brine is not.
Brine is often injected
into disposal wells,
or sometimes sent
to water treatment
plants.
The brine is naturally
radioactive, increasing
the cancer risk for people
who come in contact with it.
The workers who handle
the waste are most at risk.
But the brine
is also used
for de-icing roads
in some parts
of the country.
The oil and
gas industry
dismisses
the natural
radioactivity
in the brine,
as harmless.
“Arsenic is
completely natural,
but you probably
wouldn’t let me
put arsenic in
your school lunch,”
one nuclear-
forensics scientist
told Rolling Stone.
Officials at EPA and the
Nuclear Regulatory
Commission both told
author Nobel that they
were not responsible
for regulating radioactivity
in the oil and gas industry.
“The workers are going
to be the canaries,”
Raina Rippel, of the
Southwest Pennsylvania
Environmental Health
Project, told Rolling Stone.
It would be
a financial “disaster”
for oil and gas drillers
if the EPA began regulating
brine as a hazardous waste
-- the shale industry has
never been profitable,
on average, and is currently
going through a second wave
of bankruptcies.
The popularity of fracking
is a little over a decade old.
Yet certain types of cancers
are already cropping up,
and scientists say there is
a lot of evidence that points
to brine exposure.
I don't have
a good conclusion,
other than saying
this subject needs
more study.