PA Public Drinking Water Not Radioactive After All
Further proof that the New York Times series of “PA water is radioactive because treated Marcellus drilling wastewater was released into waterways” scare articles was nothing more than hot air and fiction:
A battery of tests has showed no radioactive contaminants in the water used and produced at 12 of 14 drinking water suppliers in Western Pennsylvania, according to state environmental regulators.
Wastewater treatment plants and drinking water suppliers performed extra tests throughout March, reacting to media reports that questioned whether an increase in Marcellus shale drilling had led to the introduction of radioactive chemicals into public water.
Of the 12 drinking water suppliers, only The Tri-County Joint Municipal Authority in Fredericktown reported any traces of radium-228 at all, and it was 80 percent below the maximum amount allowed, said Katy Gresh, spokeswoman at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
The department is still pursuing test results from two other suppliers, the Carmichaels and Newell municipal authorities, she added.*
Don’t hold your breath that the Gray Lady will print even a single sentence of a retraction.
*Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Jun 21, 2011) – Public water safe from radioactivity throughout region
The Gray Lady doesn’t need to print a retraction because radioactive elements like radium are significantly heavier than water, so when the discharges stopped, the radium eventually sank to the bottom and into the river mud.