Radioactive Natural Gas Fracking Could Create New Era of "Love Canals"
WASHINGTON (February 26, 2011) – Responding to an investigative article published today by The New York Times on the high incidence of radioactive materials and other contaminants in the wastes produced from natural gas extraction, Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee, immediately questioned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on its oversight of these extractive practices.
The Times article shows that the radioactively contaminated wastewater derived from the so-called “fracking” process to produce natural gas from shale rock and other formations is being sent to sewage plants that do not have the capacity to remove radioactive radium or other materials, and these hazardous waste materials are then dumped into rivers and streams where they enter our drinking water supplies. Exposure to highly radioactive radium, one of the materials discussed in the Times report, can lead to cancer and other harmful health effects.
“I do not believe that the price for energy extracted from deep beneath the earth’s surface should include a risk to the health of those who live above it,” wrote Rep. Markey to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. “These discharges are also occurring with at least some knowledge of the risks on the part of federal and state regulators and despite the clear dangers to public health and safety.”
The letter can be found HERE and the text is pasted below this release.
“These disturbing revelations raise the prospect that natural gas production has turned our rivers and streams into this generation’s ‘Love Canals,’” said Rep. Markey in separate comments. “The natural gas industry has repeatedly claimed that fracking can be done safely. We now know we need a full investigation into exactly how fracking is done and what it does to our drinking water and our environment. Americans should not have to consume radioactive materials from their drinking water as a byproduct of natural gas production.”
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February 26, 2011
The Honorable Lisa Jackson
Administrator
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Ariel Rios Building
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20460
Dear Administrator Jackson:
I write to request your immediate assistance and immediate action in responding to a report in today’s The New York Times indicating that there is a serious risk to the health of millions of people who live near sites at which extraction of natural gas is occurring via a process known as hydraulic fracturing. The New York Times investigation and associated documentation suggest that millions of gallons of water that is contaminated with drilling waste, including radioactive radium at levels that far exceed safe drinking water standards, has been dumped into rivers that supply drinking water to surrounding communities. This is of particular health concern since inhaled or ingested radium increases the risk of developing lymphoma, bone cancer, and diseases that affect the formation ofblood, such as leukemia and aplastic anemia.
This disposal of drilling wastewater into surface waterways is reportedly occurring in an almost complete absence of monitoring of either the wastewater itself or the drinking waterintakes located downstream of those very same waterways. These discharges have also occurred with at least some knowledge o
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