Last week in Albany, we released a report
that finds that horizontal hydrofracking in New York State is likely to produce
significantly higher amounts of radioactive waste than previously believed, and
that the NYS DEC has not demonstrated the ability to properly analyze the
potential impact of radiation exposure or take adequate steps to protect the
public.
Once radioactive material comes up out of the
ground along with the gas, the problem is what to do with it. The radioactivity
lasts for tens of thousands of years, and it is virtually impossible to eliminate or
mitigate. Sooner or later, it's going to end up in our environment and
eventually our food chain. It's a problem with no good solution.
According to the EPA, exposure to radium
increases the risk of cancer. Radium also decays into radon, which is the
second leading cause of lung cancer. The EPA has been extremely critical of New York State's plans for dealing with the radiation from fracking, but no one seems to be paying much attention. So we commissioned the report.
The report, Consideration of Radiation in Hazardous Waste Produced from Horizontal Hydrofracking, was authored by Ivan White, a career scientist with
the Congressionally-chartered National Council on Radiation Protection. There
he helped develop computer programs for radiation risk assessment and assisted
in the formulation of national policies on radiation protection for civilian
and military personnel.
"Radioactive materials and chemical wastes
do not just go away when they are released into the environment. They remain
active and potentially lethal, and can show up years later in unexpected
places," writes White. " They bio-accumulate in the food chain,
eventually reaching humans. Under the proposal for horizontal hydrofracking in
New York State, there are insufficient precautions for monitoring potential
pathways or to even know what is being released into the environment."
See our new flyer on radioactive waste.
