Tag Archives: Pennsylvania

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Technically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive matetial – Observer

Tara Kinsell reports on TENORM stuck in Greene County. Fracking in Pennsylvannia is generating such waste. This material includes biproducts from oil and gas exploration and pumping. A more permanent solution to transportation and storage needs to be found to contain or reclaim radioactive materials. Here is an excerpt:

It isn’t like we are taking nuclear fuel rods. It is mostly medical waste and low level drill cuttings coming up from deep digs, not really high level radiation,” Poister said. “The problem lately is making sure it doesn’t leach into the ground so it doesn’t become a larger problem. Obviously you don’t want that stuff sitting on site. It is supposed to be safely disposed of.”

He said there are stringent guidelines that must be followed when dealing with TENORM.

Companies face fines when they are out of compliance. However, looking at fines for various infractions, including some for failure to properly dispose of or clean up waste that threatened polluting waters of the commonwealth, resulted in fines of just a few thousand dollars. It seems like a drop in the bucket for wells that are raking in millions.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) estimates the United States may produce more than 1 billion tons of TENORM annually from all sources. Large quantities of TENORM are currently undisposed of with much of it existing in abandoned mine sites across the country, according to the NRC.

Poister said TENORM is part of the reason the DEP launched a study in January to look at naturally occurring levels of radioactivity in materials associated with oil and gas development.

Flowback waters, treatment solids, drill cuttings, transportation issues, storage and disposal of drilling wastes and levels of radon in natural gas are being looked at, along with the potential of exposure to industry employees and the public.

http://www.observer-reporter.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20130708%2FNEWS02%2F130709434#.Ud6Vvqz7ZRZ

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Great Lakes basin water hogs | Great Lakes Echo

Reblog of the article by Becky Mckendry on water use by Ontario, Quebec, New York, Pennsylvania. Water hog designation depends on type of water use from agriculture to hydro power:

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More than 44 billion gallons of water were extracted daily from the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin in 2011, according to a new report.

Of the region’s states and provinces, Ontario withdrew the most water, at about 37 percent and Pennsylvania took the least at .07 percent. Uses for the water include irrigation, public drinking and industrial needs.

That amount does not include water used for hydroelectric energy.

When including energy uses, the picture changes dramatically. Quebec, New York and Ontario together make up  more than 97 percent of the water withdrawals.

The findings are part of an annual report recently released by the Great Lakes Commission. The full report can be found here, as well as previous years’ reports.

http://greatlakesecho.org/2013/06/18/data-shows-daily-withdrawals-from-great-lakes-basin/

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Northeast Wildlife habitat threatened

“If you wanted to create a perfect storm for biological invasion, you would do what the energy companies are doing in north-central Pennsylvania,” said Kevin Heatley, an ecologist with the national firm Biohabitats who works to restore areas that have been damaged by human activity. “You can only put so many bloody parking lots in the woods.”

Energy companies, which say they are being responsible stewards of the land, have rushed to unlock the natural gas lying in the shale beneath Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. The gas has lowered energy costs, allowed the U.S. to lessen reliance on foreign energy and provided private landowners who sit atop well sites with a gold mine in royalties. New York, which also has large reserves, is trying to decide whether to allow fracking.

The new energy development is “almost a spider web coming down to the forest,” said Nels Johnson of the Pennsylvania chapter of The Nature Conservancy, which estimates the state could see thousands of miles of new pipelines over the next two decades.

Even northeastern states that have put a hold on fracking aren’t immune, because many import natural gas. The U.S. Energy Information Administration found that 245 miles of new pipelines were laid in the Northeast last year, and that figure is projected to grow.

Wind turbine development poses similar threats, too. The Nature Conservancy says Pennsylvania already has more than 600 of the giant blades, with the potential for thousands more in coming decades.

The total acreage taken up by the pipelines, wind projects and related development isn’t that large, but the open spaces they create allow predators and invasive species to permeate a canopy of trees that once kept them at bay.