The video to the right was recorded on 2023 October 19th, by a certified optical gas imaging thermographer from Earthworks, using a FLIR GF 320 camera.

The FLIR camera is able to make visible emissions containing methane and volatile organic compounds, in this case heavily venting from the produced water tank on the Diversified gas well pad.

Produced water accumulates as a byproduct during the extraction of oil and gas. This water is often referred to as "brine" by the oil and gas industry, as it is generally brackish and saline.

“The water composition ranges widely from well to well and even over the life of the same well…Some produced water contains heavy metals and traces of naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM), which over time deposits radioactive scale in the piping at the well. Metals found in produced water include zinc, lead, manganese, iron, and barium.” ---Wikipedia

According to the RollingStone article, America’s Radioactive Secret, by Justin Nobel (2020 January 21):

Radium, typically the most abundant radionuclide in brine, is often measured in picocuries per liter of substance and is so dangerous it’s subject to tight restrictions even at hazardous-waste sites. The most common isotopes are radium-226 and radium-228, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission requires industrial discharges to remain below 60 for each.

“Breathing in this stuff and ingesting it are the worst types of exposure,” [John Stolz, Duquesne University’s environmental-center director] continues. “You are irradiating your tissues from the inside out.” The radioactive particles fired off by radium can be blocked by the skin, but radium readily attaches to dust, making it easy to accidentally inhale or ingest. Once inside the body, its insidious effects accumulate with each exposure. It is known as a “bone seeker” because it can be incorporated into the skeleton and cause bone cancers called sarcomas. It also decays into a series of other radioactive elements, called “daughters.” The first one for radium-226 is radon, a radioactive gas and the second-leading cause of lung cancer in the U.S. Radon has also been linked to chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Tanks, filters, pumps, pipes, hoses, and trucks that brine touches can all become contaminated, with the radium building up into hardened “scale,” concentrating to as high as 400,000 picocuries per gram. With fracking — which involves sending pressurized fluid deep underground to break up layers of shale — there is dirt and shattered rock, called drill cuttings, that can also be radioactive. But brine can be radioactive whether it comes from a fracked or conventional well; the levels vary depending on the geological formation, not drilling method…Marcellus shale, underlying Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and New York, has tested the highest.

 

Radium in its brine can average around 9,300 picocuries per liter, but has been recorded as high as 28,500.

There is little public awareness of this enormous waste stream, the disposal of which could present dangers at every step — from being transported along America’s highways in unmarked trucks; handled by workers who are often misinformed and underprotected; leaked into waterways; and stored in dumps that are not equipped to contain the toxicity. Brine has even been used in commercial products sold at hardware stores and is spread on local roads as a de-icer.

For a time, in Pennsylvania, doctors were even banned from discussing some toxic fracking exposures with patients — the controversial “medical gag rule” was struck down by the state’s Supreme Court in 2016. Also, cancer from radiation often emerges years after exposure, making it hard to pinpoint a cause.

But a set of recent legal cases argues a direct connection to occupational exposure can be made. Expert testimony in lawsuits by dozens of Louisiana oil-and-gas industry workers going back decades and settled in 2016 show that pipe cleaners, welders, roughnecks, roustabouts, derrickmen, and truck drivers hauling dirty pipes and sludge all were exposed to radioactivity without their knowledge and suffered a litany of lethal cancers.

Marvin Resnikoff, a nuclear physicist and radioactive-waste specialist who served as an expert witness, says that in every case the workers won or the industry settled. “I can tell you this industry has tremendous resources and hired the best people they could, and they were not successful,” he says. “Once you have the information, it is indisputable.”

— quoted from the RollingStone article, America’s Radioactive Secret,

by Justin Nobel (2020 January 21)

 

You can read Justin Nobel’s excellent article in its entirety (and the follow-up from 2021) on RollingStone’s website by clicking on the large, red buttons. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

 

(We do not receive funds or any other kind of compensation for linking to the articles.)

 

For more information, visit:

https://earthworks.org/methane/

DEP Inspection ID:  3588050  (2023-07-20)

- no violations noted

 

Routine/Complete Inspection (Facility ID 237486):

 

https://gis.dep.pa.gov/pdfHandler/pdFHandler.ashx?Doc=MzA0ODkzNg==&ext=PDF

DEP Inspection ID:  3633151  (2023-09-14)

- no violations noted

 

Routine/Complete Inspection (Facility ID 237486):

 

https://gis.dep.pa.gov/pdfHandler/pdFHandler.ashx?Doc=MzA0ODkzNg==&ext=PDF

DEP Inspection ID:  3649060  (2023-11-20)

- no violations noted

 

Routine/Complete Inspection (Facility ID 237486):

 

https://gis.dep.pa.gov/pdfHandler/pdFHandler.ashx?Doc=MzA5MTc2NQ==&ext=PDF