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Backyard Talk

How Ohio handles radioactive waste from oil/gas drilling

Ohio has an amazing way to make the radioactive waste produced by the oil/gas industry just disappear.  How you ask, just mix the radium 226 and 228 with dirt until the levels are only 5 picocuries above background.  There are two other options that Ohio gives industry, send the waste to a low level waste site in Oregon or to a landfill in Michigan that takes the radioactive waste below 50 picocuries.  Gee, wonder which one is cheapest for the oil/gas industry.

Ohio also is considering allowing the “beneficial use” of drill cutting.  They say nothing about testing of this toxic, radioactive waste.  Save landfill space is their cry.  One way Ohio is saving space is by using the drill cuttings as landfill cover.  Did Ohio consider that this waste may become airborne? Remember this is Ohio.

Maybe we should require that the multimillionaires of the oil and gas industry live next to the landfills or injection wells that take the drilling waste.  Just like during the Roman Empire when an architect built one of the still standing arches they were pretty sure that the arch was safe to walk under because, when they built one, the empire made the Designer/Architect stand under it while they removed the supports after construction.