April 30, 2024 PA Senator Katie Muth held a press conference in Harrisburg, PA in the Main Rotunda of the State Capital Building. As she introduced Justin Nobel, she thanked him for what he has taught her. Then he spoke about his book, Petroleum-238. This is the third time I have learned about this topic from Mr. Nobel. The more I hear, the more deeply disturbing details become apparent. Justin stated that the long history of the recognition of radioactivity in oil & gas waste started in 1904 in Pennsylvania. In 1960 the U.S. Geologic Survey studied black shales, such as the Marcellus and Utica, because of uranium found there. At that time gas was considered a possibly useful byproduct of uranium extraction. The American Petrochemical Institute (API) recognized that naturally occurring radioactive material exists in fossil fuels, and this can be technologically enhanced during production of fracking waste, TeNORM.. The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has a formal program for wells that accept fracking waste, but in 1971, at a meeting in Houston, Texas, it was acknowledged that there is no scientific basis for the injection of fracking waste into wells. Injection wells are at best a ‘short term fix’. More than 50 years later injection of fracking waste into wells in Pennsylvania is still an immediate threat. Justin emphasized that state reports in Pennsylvania clearly recognized the radioactive nature of fluids coming from black shales. For example, 60 picocuries/L is the concentration of radium considered dangerous by the Environmental Protection Agency. The average radium in Marcellus brine is 9,330 picocuries/L.
Justin introduced Shawn Guthrie, a man who went to work in the industry of processing fracking waste, because his previous employer lost a contract. Mr. Guthrie was told that this new line of work was contributing to cleaning up the environment. He was given no training in safety measures around radioactive waste. There was no safety gear such as masks to prevent dust inhalation. Shawn, like many others, was glad to have found employment and pleased that this work could be helpful to his community. He said his experience at Fairmont Brine in West Virginia, was an example of what not to do. He wants accountability and clean up. The area was not decommissioned by the company based in Pennsylvania that owned it. The Fairmont site was shuttered and deserted. Students then partied there. Senator Muth stated that Shawn is the third man who has come to Harrisburg to testify about what they experienced working with fracking waste. Senator Muth noted that workers who speak up about dangers in their workplace are often ostracized by what should have been a supportive community. Two of the men Shawn worked with at Fairmont Brine have died from cancer. Shawn has also experienced declining health since he entered Fairmont. Shawn spoke almost reticently.
Next Dr. Yuri Gorby spoke. He had worked with the United States Department of Energy on radioactive waste at Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State where plutonium was retrieved from spent uranium fuel rods. The tight safety standards applied at Hanford should be universal. When Dr. Gorby visited the Fairmont Brine site in West Virginia, where Shawn Guthrie, had worked, he recorded only background radiation levels in the parking lot, but in the dust on the floor of the building in which brine from fracking was processed into salt for road spreading, the levels of radiation were so high as to mandate protective clothing including masks by the national radiologic protocol. Dr. Gorby explained that the naturally occurring radioactive particles in fracking waste emit alpha and beta particles. When dust containing this is inhaled it gets into the blood stream and damages tissues. Any part of the body may then be injured by beta particles.
Dr. Gorby stated that it was workers coming with complaints of rashes and loss of teeth that led him to document high radiation levels in their workplaces. Randy Moyer from Portage worked for 4 months hauling fracking waste before he got too sick to work. Some of the dust got into his boot. He died within four years. Shawn and his co-workers were unaware of these risks while they worked at Fairmont. The only training they had received as they started to work there, moving TeNORM daily, was that this was important work that would help clean up the environment. They were never given masks or provided protective clothing that would be left at work. They took their work clothes home to wash as they always had. Dr. Gorby reported that he tested the dust in protective gear worn by a worker at the Austin Master facility in Martins Ferry, Ohio, a fracking waste management site, who came forward with radiation related health concerns. The radiation count of his dusty boots was greater than 10 times that of the background. Pipelines gathering gas from Marcellus shale hold a lot of radioactivity. Cleaning scale from these pipes exposes workers to high levels of radioactivity. Dr. Gorby teaches that these workers also need protection.
Shawn Guthrie wants accountability by industry, more protection for workers in the future and clean up of the toxic waste that everybody walked away from when the waste treatment plant in Fairmont was closed. Dr. Gorby has put out a call to all people who went into the work sheds at Fairmont Brine. He will examine the radioactivity in their homes, which can last longer than they live. This problem is a sleeping monster, he said.
As Senator Muth introduced Jill Hunkler she noted the toxic interaction of Pennsylvania, Ohio & West Virginia in transport of fracking waste. Waste produced in one state is often transported across state borders for treatment or burial in another state. This presentation was especially moving because Jill Hunkler, of Ohio Valley Allies, and Megan McDonough, the Pennsylvania Director of Food and Water Watch spoke next about their personal experience with the fracking industry.
Jill is a seventh generation resident of Belmont County, Ohio. She was shaking when she described the damage the workers suffered in this industry. They were harmed and lied to. They deserve to be protected. Production should be stopped. She said Justin Nobel has been a God-send to their community. The regulators had deserted the region, sacrificing the workers and residents to the pollution left by the fracking industry. Then Justin helped them understand what was happening. Jill’s anger was palpable as she said that her quiet, rural life, the legacy of her family, has been ruined by the arrival of fracking. In her community school buses park close to brine trucks. Mats with fracking waste spilled on them are piled next to the school buses, 500 feet from a point of water supply. She said that the fracking industry is not about energy independence, about feeding cracking to make plastic.
Jill reported her participation in the recent United Nations Conference charged with developing a world wide agreement to limit plastic production that was held in Ottawa, Canada. When she spoke with delegates there she stressed that toxic, radioactive fracking waste can not be separated from plastic waste & plastic pollution. These are closely connected in the process of the petrochemical industries.
Megan McDonough lives in Washington County, where countless families have been torn apart by the fracking Industry. We agree with her that this industry has been built on greed and deception. When fracking was introduced to SWPA, jobs and economic growth were promised. But what Megan and many others have experienced is that the lives of their children have been sacrificed to corporate greed, as expendable, disposable, forgotten casualties to economic growth, growth which fell far short of initial promises.
Now we clearly see a growing Childhood Cancer Crisis in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Affected families have known this for years. But our politicians deny it as they fast track more permits to extract radioactive gas. Those benefiting from this industry don’t want to hear the suffering that it has already produced. Their plans are to continue this industry for many more decades, at our expense. Greed, corruption, and indifference are allowing this abuse of the residents of Pennsylvania.
Our children should not be sacrificed for the greed of a few in offices far away. We agree with Megan that we can not rely on bought-and-paid-for politicians. We must take matters into our own hands & hold those responsible accountable.
Do not back down. Human struggle must hold those responsible accountable.
These stories are a call action to demand that this is enough. The politicians in Pennsylvania have built themselves a house of cards, financed by industry.
“A house of cards is a house of cards”, Megan said, “I want a front row seat to see it fall”.
Representative Rabb said that he did not want to be here, at this recognition of human injury caused by unregulated corporations. He drafted a condolence resolution for approval by the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, with the cause of death of Randy Moyer listed as greed, corporate, and political greed. Pennsylvania is the second largest fracked gas producer in the US. Lobbyists for the fossil gas industry are more numerous than the large number of politicians. If we are not angry we are not paying attention, stated Representative Rabb.
Institutional barriers in Pennsylvania prevent people from speaking out about the arms the fossil gas industry is continuing to cause. Rabb continued, claiming that organized people will beat organized money.
People are the tip of the spear, he said. You may not want to act on that for yourself.
But we can not sit silent with a green amendment. Our constitutional rights, and those of our children and following generations, are being violated by industry. We must defend our rights to clean air, clean water and a healthy environment.
Representative Rabb thanked all the speakers for their work.
Senator Muth thanked Physicians for Social Responsibility for their boots on the ground to get data about the harms caused by fracking out to people in Pennsylvania. For decades the human and environmental harm from gas has existed. “I did not know about all of this when I was elected to the Pennsylvania Senate.” said Katie Muth. The facts are that only big rich people really benefit from this industry. All centralized waste facilities and landfills in Pennsylvania can accept this radioactive fracking waste. Every other industry follows radioactive waste guidelines. There should not be general acceptance that people die of cancer and that workers and their families will suffer from toxic exposures at work. Cleaning out waste tanks or gathering lines using a vacuum without wearing protective gear creates obscene & criminal damage to fracking waste workers.
Every single person you know needs to recognize that water, air & soil pollution are not restricted by state lines. What happens next door is going to affect all of us.