In 2014 Pennsylvania anti-drillers from a local chapter of the Izaak Walton League, a so-called conservation organization, attempted a smear job on the Marcellus Shale industry. They alleged that shale drillers were illegally dumping frack wastewater in an abandoned coal mine, the Clyde Mine, which sits near the Ten Mile Creek where the creek joins the Monongahela River. According to the smearmeisters, the illegally dumped wastewater was leaking out of the mine and into Ten Mile Creek (see Is Shale Wastewater Causing Radiation Spike in Ten Mile Creek?). They claimed testing they had done showed high levels of radioactivity that could not come from just acid mine drainage, that it is radioactivity typically seen in shale wastewater. Of course the allegations got a lot of media attention. The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) investigated and echoed their concerns with initial tests also showing high radioactivity. Except the testing done by the DEP, and the testing done by the Izaak Walton League, WAS THE WRONG TYPE OF TEST. They blew it. Researchers from West Virginia University came in and tested using the appropriate type of test and found no elevated radioactivity (see PA DEP Screws Up Water Test at Ten Mile Creek – Egg on Face). After the humiliation of being outed as using the wrong test, the DEP re-ran tests for six months in 2015–the right kind of tests–and found NO elevated radioactivity in Ten Mile Creek nor anywhere else in the area (see PA DEP Admits No Radiation in Ten Mile Creek, Closes Investigation). The DEP has continued to run tests since that time and issued a final report in November (full copy below) finding, once again, NO elevated levels of radiation in Ten Mile Creek. The response by anti-drilling radicals with an agenda to smear the Marcellus industry? Unbelievably, they once again repeated their allegation of illegal wastewater dumping…
Read More “PA DEP Says Ten Mile Creek Radiation-Free; Antis Still Peddle Lies”