Does Gas Drilling Put Radiation in Texas Water?
With new shale discoveries in south-central Texas, the state's natural gas production is poised to grow, as The Texas Tribune reports today.
A variety of environmental concerns have arisen over shale drilling, however. The best-known of these involve chemical pollution of aquifers and the air. A recent New York Times series, focused on Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale, raised additional questions about whether or not radioactive materials are ending up in that state's waterways as a result of wastewater from drilling operations. (State findings released subsequent to the article show that the radiation levels are at or below normal ...
Comments (3)
Sharon Wilson
Please tell me you are going to do more reporting on this issue.
Kim Feil
----- Original Message -----
From: Kim & Ken Feil
To: terry.clawson@rrc.state.tx.us
Cc: Julie Hunt
Sent: Monday, March 14, 2011 9:53 AM
Subject: Texas Tribune statement question
Mr Clawson, your statement in the http://www.texastribune.org/texas-energy/energy/does-gas-drilling-put-radiation-in-texas-water/print/
"The TCEQ Water Supply Division sampling has not detected elevated levels of radionuclides in public water systems located near gas-drilling sites."
More specifically, my question is..... has radionuclides been detected, but not elevated since the advent of drilling in the Barnett Shale?
To ask this question differently, where before drilling we had either no or low radionuclides...can we make a comparison that SINCE drilling that information may be changed and are we "now" showing the presence of radionuclides, but not at elevated levels?
Where are the testing sites that the TCEQ Water Supply Division tests, and how often are they being tested?
I'd like to view the before drilling levels and after drilling levels; can someone help me with this query?
I've read that to be protective, that during drilling, near a drill site one must also dig a (water) well near and monitor the well water at each stage and during the more riskier stage (fracking/flowback), that the well water needs to be monitored hourly.
Can you comment on if we could get to that protective level? We had a drilling spill last July in Lake Arlington that supplies over 500,000 souls their drinking water and it is unknown exactly how many barrels went into the lake. Ninety-five barrels were recovered at the site.
Andrew Pelczar
I've develop a sensitive detector which can be use for checking a water
and food. The measurement report of samples and short description of the detector are on the net at:
http://www.pelczar.com.pl/Measurements-using-PT00109-1-Geiger-Muller-Sensor.pdf
ALARA Project -an initiative for fighting the hazardous effects of Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (TENORM) http://www.alara-project.com