Is Marcellus/Utica Shale Wastewater Dangerously Radioactive?
The Columbus Dispatch attempts to gin up anti-fracking sentiment by using a year-old study by the U.S. Geological Survey. The Dispatch’s argument, in a nutshell: A lot of Marcellus Shale wastewater coming from Pennsylvania to Ohio for disposal via deep injection wells is “radioactive” (i.e. dangerous if it should leak onto the ground). The Utica Shale in Ohio is like the Marcellus in Pennsylvania, ergo, fracking shale in the Utica will produce radioactive waste. Conclusion: Don’t frack.
From the article:
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The Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY) yesterday emailed an “urgent call to action” to New York landowners and those in the state who support natural gas drilling. The JLCNY has received a tip from “credible sources” that Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been asked to once again delay the release of new drilling rules in New York, known as the SGEIS, until after the election on Nov. 6—effectively meaning “not until 2013.” The JLCNY call to action asks landowners and gas supporters to phone the governor’s office, along with the offices of other prominent politicians, asking them to not delay the release of new drilling rules.
Since the beginning of 2012, hardly a quarterly earnings/operations report from an energy company, nor a story about natural prices, has failed to point out how drillers are now focused on “wet gas” areas in shale plays. For the Marcellus and Utica region, that means a shift from drilling in northeast PA to southwest PA, northern WV and eastern Ohio, where wet gas deposits are found. Wet gas simply means there are extra hydrocarbons that come out of the bore hole along with “dry gas,” i.e. methane. Wet gas hydrocarbons include propane and ethane.