High Radioactivity: Impacts of Shale Gas Wastewater Disposal on Water Quality in Western Pennsylvania

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Breaking news: High levels of radioactivity and salinity have been found in river water and sediments near a wastewater discharge site connected to a fracking operation in Pennsylvania.

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The elevated levels of chloride and bromide, combined with the strontium, radium, oxygen, and hydrogen isotopic compositions of the effluents reflect the composition of Marcellus Shale produced waters. The discharge of the effluent from the treatment facility increased downstream concentrations of chloride and bromide above background levels. Barium and radium were substantially (>90%) reduced in the treated effluents compared to concentrations in Marcellus Shale produced waters. Nonetheless, 226Ra levels in stream sediments (544–8759 Bq/kg) at the point of discharge were 200 times greater than upstream and background sediments (22–44 Bq/kg) and above radioactive waste disposal threshold regulations, posing potential environmental risks of radium bioaccumulation in localized areas of shale gas wastewater disposal.

In its research paper entitled:”Impacts of Shale Gas Wastewater Disposal on Water Quality in Western Pennsylvania,” a research team from the Duke University analyzed sediments and water samples from a creek in western Pennsylvania where treated fracking wastewater is discharged.

Their results show that some samples collected near below the Josephine Brine Treatment Facility discharge were 200x more concentrated in radium than samples collected upstream from the treatment plant. In other words, some of the discharged water is flowback from the expansive Marcellus shale deposit, which is naturally high in salinity and radioactivity. The fracking wastewater is treated before it’s released into the waterways, but the researchers say the treatment does not remove all unwanted matter.

This is another argument showing that US water reservoirs are cautioned by shale gas extraction. You remember the map?

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