14 DAY TRIAL // A paper published in yesterday's issue of the journal Environmental Science and Technology details the discovery of worryingly high levels of radioactivity at a fracking waste disposal site in western Pennsylvania.
By the looks of it, fairly elevated levels of salts and metals have also been discovered at this location.
In their paper, researchers explain that the contaminated samples they analyzed as part of this investigation were collected from the Blacklick Creek, i.e. a tributary of the Conemaugh River.
Some of the samples were collected from upstream the Josephine Brine Treatment Facility, whose working agenda revolves around treating waste water resulting from oil and gas operations and then releasing it into the environment.
Other samples were collected from downstream said facility, Science News tells us.
After looking into the chemical makeup of these samples, researchers found that the ones collected from downstream the plant contained elevated levels of radioactivity.
“Radium levels were about 200 times greater in sediment samples collected where the Josephine Brine Treatment Facility discharges its treated wastewater into Blacklick Creek than in sediment samples collected just upstream of the plant,” explains researcher Avner Vengosh with the Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment.
“Although the facility's treatment process significantly reduced radium and barium levels in the wastewater, the amount of radioactivity that has accumulated in the river sediments still exceeds thresholds for safe disposal of radioactive materials,” he further detailed of his and his colleagues' findings.
The stream water analyzed by Avner Vengosh and his colleagues was also found to contain elevated concentrations of salts such as bromide and metals, the same source reports.
In light of these findings, specialists fear that, in time, both local ecosystems and public health will be affected.
“Years of disposal of oil and gas wastewater with high radioactivity has created potential environmental risks for thousands of years to come,” Avner Vengosh wished to stress.