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Posts tagged "NORM"

Athens Activist Misses The Mark on Injection Wells

Monday, November 19th, 2012 | 4 Comments

Last week, the opinion piece penned by local activist Madelline ffitch regarding Class II injection wells. The column was heavy in rhetoric and anecdotal information, but light on facts.

Though we’ve covered the ins-and-outs of injection wells here on numerous occasions, there remains quite a bit of misinformation continuing to be circulated in our public conversation. Many of these misstatements are repeated in this column, so it seems worth revisiting.

Let’s take a look at some of the more egregious statements, and then separate the facts from the inflammatory.

ffitch: “Outrage about the out-of-state radioactive waste that is being dumped into substandard waste wells in our community…”

Two things off the mark here:

As we’ve covered before, Ohio has the most stringent UIC rules in the country. In fact Ohio’s updates to its regulation of injection wells prompted Tom Tomastik, a national expert on injection wells, to state in an email that Ohio “now has the most stringent Class II saltwater injection well regulations in the United States,”.

Ohio’s regulation of injection wells exceeds the standards set for by the EPA, which granted the state primacy in UIC oversight in 1983. In that time, nearly twenty years now, Ohio has “not had any subsurface [water] contamination,” according to Tomastik.

Those who oppose the development of fossil fuels frequently throw around the phrase “radioactive waste” loosely, and it’s a very misleading term. The radioactive material referenced, in veiled phrasing, is naturally occurring radioactive material – or NORM – and it is surprisingly pervasive in every day life. It even occurs in our bodies in the form of radioactive potassium. It is present in things we use frequently, including public drinking water, Brazil nuts, peanut butter or granite countertops. On average, Americans receive a radiation dose of about 620 millirem each year.  None of these levels are dangerous to human health, and the same can be said of NORM returning via flowback from a oil or natural gas well.

This fact has been confirmed by numerous and recent studies on the subject, including a radiological survey report by the Co-Physics Corporation in New York that concluded that “rock cuttings from the gas drilling operations, as sampled during this project, have radionuclide levels that do not pose any environmental health problems.”

This reinforces finding from last year by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement On The Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Regulatory Program that states, that based upon currently available information, it is anticipated that flowback water do not contain levels of NORM of significance.

In the video below, ODNR Oil and Gas Division Chief Rick Simmers addresses NORM as it relates to oil and gas development.

Radioactive materials that can be associated with oil and gas or injection operations are sometimes referred to as NORM or Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material or TENORM Technically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material.  These type of radioactive isotopes are literally in everything, including us.

The Ohio Department of Health is the agency that regulates NORM, TENORM and radioactive issues as a whole.  The Ohio Department of Health has tested locations throughout the Utica Shale.  They have looked at drill cuttings.  They have looked at fluids and have found there are very low levels of NORM well within the established limits by the federal government and reflected in state law. Rick Simmers (January 11th, Covelli Centre, Youngstown)

ffitch: “This week, I talked to a local firefighter who said, as an emergency responder, she does not receive training or equipment to deal with exposure to radioactive hazardous waste,”

Ohio’s emergency responders are well equipped to deal with any rare situation that may arise in oil and gas development. In fact, as the Daily Jeffersonian stated in its article Emergency Response Training for Oil and Gas Field Industry Not New to Ohio, our state is “a trendsetter” for training for gas and oil field emergencies.

For over 12 years, the workshops – free of charge – to emergency responders. This curriculum has been endorsed by the Ohio Fire Chief’s Association, and serves as a model for other developing states developing similar programs of their own.

To date, nearly a thousand emergency responders hailing from over 40 counties have attended the program, which is conducted several times throughout the year.

ffitch: “Then, just yesterday, I heard the news that a friend is selling his farm and moving because he believes that the injection well near his land threatens the health of the livestock he depends on to make his living.”

It’s unfortunate if the gentleman the author refers to here is moving based on the idea that, somehow, his farm or his livestock would be impacted by a nearby injection well.

Injection wells have been developed in agricultural regions since the days of Constantine. According to the EPA’s History of the UIC Program, the use of injection wells was documented as early as A.D. 300, with large-scale commercial use of injection wells in the U.S. beginning in the1930s.

To date, over 144,000 Class II injection wells have been developed across the United States, with 181 (or .12% of the nation’s total) developed here in Ohio.

The EPA has declared the use of injection wells as a “safe and inexpensive” means of disposal, with the main objective of the UIC program ensuring the protection of underground sources of drinking water. This is why the use of injection wells is regulated under the Underground Injection Control program of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, passed by Congress in 1974. EPA administers the UIC program, and delegates regulatory authority over SDWA to the state of Ohio.  The underground injection program is regulated under Section 1422 of the Safe Drinking Water Act.

With over seventeen centuries of success as a safe means of wastewater disposal, one can rest assured there is no cause to move due to an injection well.

ffitch: “No matter where you stand on other issues – Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, right, left or in between – we can all get together on this one. “

This is one we can agree on. The safe, responsible development of our natural energy resources is one of the few issues supported by all parties, including the President of the United States, former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, and Ohio senators Rob Portman (R) and Sherrod Brown (D).

ffitch: “Appalachian Ohio is simply being treated as a big dumpsite for frack-waste trucked in from states that consider this material too hazardous to be dumped in their own backyards. “

In a cross post published this weekend, we covered how this notion is far from fact.  Let’s take a quick look some of the highlights coming out of New York and Pennsylvania:

Pennsylvania:

New York:

If these states believe that injection wells are “unsafe”, then how are new ones being proposed there? More importantly, why are the regulators saying that the wells are safe? 

The fact is injection wells remain the safest, most effective means of waste disposal, as they have for centuries. These are not new or unique operations taking place in Ohio (or elsewhere, for that matter), but rather a time-tested and proven practice.

In the discussion of Ohio’s continuing development of our homegrown energy resources, it is vital we have an honest, fact-based conversation rather than one based in fear and void of any factual information. Our gift in the Utica Shale is an opportunity too great to be hindered by a conversation that is anything but truth.

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*UPDATE II* Going Off The Rails On A Hagan Train

Tuesday, February 21st, 2012 | 1 Comment

UPDATE II (2/21/12, 8:00 A.M.):

We know a group of protestors disrupted the Governor’s State of the State address last week, but we didn’t know much about those protestors until today. Via The Dispatch, below is footage of one of the protestors who was removed for disrupting the address. This activist went to great lengths -and great volume – to disrupt the Governor’s speech, and provided an interesting perspective on natural resources recovery in Ohio.  It’s unclear if this protestor was one of the attendees bussed to the event by State Representative Hagan, for his sake we hope there is no connection.


UPDATE (2/14/12, 4:00 p.m.) He’s back.

The Columbus Dispatch broke a story this week that Rep.  Hagan actively sought to disrupt Governor Kasich’s State of the State Address.  According to the Dispatch, Hagan provided transportation to 35 protestors to help them disrupt the Governor’s remarks.  The Representative was also reportedly seen handing out tickets to local Occupy protestors so they could disrupt the event as well.  All of this occurring as the Governor was highlighting the need for public officials to work together to ensure Ohio remains on an upward track in tackling the challenges that face residents throughout the Buckeye State.

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As most know by now, on New Year’s Eve a 4.0 earthquake struck near Youngstown prompting Governor Kasich and ODNR to halt injections at Youngstown area UIC wells until more facts come to light. While investigations continue, the decision by Governor Kasich and ODNR was the right course of action and was fully supported by all stakeholders, including the Ohio Oil and Gas Association. However,  Rep. Bob Hagan  has used this unique event, to incorrectly disparage an industry that is already reviving Ohio’s Steel Industry and is providing thousands of good paying-jobs for Ohioans with up to 200,000 more expected over the next few years.  After hearing the Representative say some statements out of touch with the facts on the ground in Ohio we wanted to take a minute to correct the record and help provide some understanding to the situation at hand.

Rep. Hagan: “56% of the chemicals,the toxic chemicals that are being shipped from out of state are being shipped into our state. Why? That question has to be answered.”  (Rep. Bob Hagan, January 11th, Covelli Centre, Youngstown)

Rep. Hagan: “The New York Times did a study here and that they found out, its not even being asked in Ohio, that there is radiation poisoning in these wells.” (Rep. Bob Hagan, January 11th, Covelli Centre, Youngstown, 0.18)

 ODNR Division of Oil and Gas Chief Rick Simmers explains there are no health implications from disposing of fluid or cuttings from exploration in Ohio:

radioactive materials that can be associated with oil and gas or injection operations are sometimes referred to as NORM or Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material or TENORM Technically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material.  These type of radioactive isotopes are literally in everything, including us.

The Ohio Department of Health is the agency that regulates NORM, TENORM and radioactive issues as a whole.  The Ohio Department of Health has tested locations throughout the Utica Shale.  They have looked at drill cuttings.  They have looked at fluids and have found there are very low levels of NORM well within the established limits by the federal government and reflected in state law. Rick Simmers (January 11th, Covelli Centre, Youngstown)

Rep. Hagan:  ”I want to know why it’s such a big secret that we can’t get information from the Governor. We can’t get information from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.  We can’t get information from the Ohio EPA, the US EPA and the Ohio Geological Society.  All of them are hiding.  And why are they hiding. Because money is making them hide.”  (Rally at the Ohio Statehouse January 10th, Columbus, 1:01 )

Rep Hagan: “Under the Clean Water Act introduced and passed under the Bush Administration in 2005, it precluded any of the gas and oil industry people from being charged from being charged they pollute water or water table itself.  So the Clean Water Act certainly was supposed to be something that protected all of our aquifers and our clean water for the protection of the people and our drinking water as well Mike.  Second part is the mystery of what chemical they are mixing.  97-98% is water,1-2% is sand and the mystery of what those other chemicals are… “(Rep. Bob Hagan on Sound of Ideas, 3:17 of this link)

“That is the answer we don’t even know what those chemicals are.  We have no idea.” (Rep. Bob Hagan, January 11th, Covelli Centre, Youngstown, 0.11)

Rep Hagan: “Remember this, remember it loud and clear: We never had an earthquake until John Kasich was elected governor.” (0:01)

Given the importance of what is at stake it is critical that we have a discussion based on fact and science. This week, the residents of Youngstown will have another opportunity to hear about shale development and have their concerns addressed by experts studying the issue (be sure to follow Energy in Depth – Ohio for more coverage on Tuesday’s event). We hope concerned citizens will attend to hear these experts and will hopefully gain some perspective on the issue.

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