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SACRAMENTO, CA – Protestors hold signs against fracking during a demonstration outside of the California Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) headquarters on July 25, 2012 in Sacramento, California. Dozens of environmental activists staged a ‘Stop Fracking With California’ demonstration outside the California EPA headquarters ahead of public workshop hosted by the Division of Oil Gas and Geothermal Resources where protestors are planning to voice their opposition to the rushed regulatory of fracking and the many threats to the environment imposed by the process of hydraulic fracking for oil and gas. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
By Shepard Ambellas
Intellihub.com
October 2, 2013
WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENN. — The disposal of toxic chemical byproducts used in U.S. oil and gas production (i.e. fracking) has led to the poisoning of our watersheds and water supplies in some areas of the country. In fact, in some instances gaseous the chemical byproduct has been so heavy it has made it into homes, peoples sink faucets have ignited into flames right at the tap. However, flames aren’t enough anymore, the corporations keep pushing for profits and now our water supply is at stake.
Now, runoff from chemical plants is threatening plant, animal, and human life more than ever as radiation has been discovered in the local watershed.
The official website for Blacklick Creek Watershed Association reads, “The Blacklick Creek watershed is 420 square miles in Indiana and Cambria counties. The largest streams are Blacklick, Twolick and Yellow Creeks. These and other streams are degraded by severe acid mine discharges. Many streams within the watershed are polluted with high levels of metals and acidity. There are many discharges from abandoned underground mines, poorly reclaimed surface mines and coal refuse piles”[1]
The journal for Environmental Science and Technology published a peer-reviewed study which yielded findings showing very high levels of Radium (226RA) exist in the Westmoreland County Watersheds, Blacklick Creek, which flows into the Allegheny River. “This study examined the water quality and isotopic compositions of discharged effluents, surface waters, and stream sediments associated with a treatment facility site in western Pennsylvania.”, reads an excerpt from the study entitled, Impacts of Shale Gas Wastewater Disposal on Water Quality in Western Pennsylvania.[2]
The study concluded that chemicals used in the fracking process have ended up in the watershed, posing a great risk. The study documents how Radium “226Ra levels in stream sediments (544–8759 Bq/kg) at the point of discharge were 
200 times greater than upstream and background sediments (22–44 Bq/kg) and above radioactive waste disposal threshold regulations, posing potential environmental risks of radium bioaccumulation in localized areas of shale gas wastewater disposal.”[2]
Wikipedia describes Radium as “a chemical element with symbol Ra and atomic number 88. Radium is an almost pure-white alkaline earth metal, but it readily oxidizes on exposure to air, becoming black in color. All isotopes of radium are highly radioactive, with the most stable isotope being radium-226, which has a half-life of 1601 years and decays into radon gas. Because of such instability, radium isluminescent, glowing a faint blue.”[3]
The problem with all of this is that radiation is accumulative, which means over time the levels will concentrate posing even more danger. As of now likely a good portion of the nearby plant life fish, and wildlife in the area are severely contaminated with radiation. This also goes for anything downstream.
BusinessWeek.com reported, “While earlier studies have identified radiation in drilling wastewater, today’s report is the first to examine the long-term environmental impacts of dumping it in rivers. Proper treatment can remove a substantial portion of the radioactivity in wastewater, though it does not remove many of the other salts, including bromide, Vengosh said.
“Our findings indicate that disposal of wastewater from both conventional and unconventional oil and gas operations has degraded the surface water and sediments,” Nathaniel Warner, a postdoctoral researcher at Dartmouth College and co-author of the study, said in a statement. “This could be a long-term legacy of radioactivity.”
Blacklick Creek is a tributary of the Conemaugh River, which flows into the Allegheny. In 2011, regulators found high levels of bromides in western Pennsylvania rivers, prompting some plants that supply Pittsburgh and other cities to change the way they treat drinking water.”[4]
Sources:
[1] Blacklick Creek Watershed Association – BlacklickCreekWatershed.org
[2] Impacts of Shale Gas Wastewater Disposal on Water Quality in Western Pennsylvania – ACS Publications
[3] Radium - Wikipedia.org
[4] Radiation in Pennsylvania Creek Seen as Legacy of Fracking Waste – BusinessWeek.com
Writer Bio:
Shepard Ambellas founder, director and editor-in-chief of Intellihub.com, is a researcher, investigative journalist, radio talk show host, activist, and filmmaker. Follow him onTwitter.
For media inquires, interviews, questions or suggestions for this author, email: shepard@intellihub.com or telephone: (347) 759-6075.
Read more articles by this author here.
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Radiation Found in Penn. Watershed 300 Times Over Normal Levels
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