1982 American Petroleum Institute Report Warned Oil Workers Faced 'Significant' Risks from Radioactivity

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Back in April last year, the Trump administrationโ€™s Environmental Protection Agencyย decided it was โ€œnot necessaryโ€ to update the rules for toxic waste from oil and gas wells. Torrents of wastewater flow daily from the nationโ€™s 1.5 million active oil and gas wells and the agencyโ€™s own research has warned it may pose risks to the country’s drinking waterย supplies.

On Tuesday, a major new investigative report published by Rolling Stone and authored by reporter Justin Nobel delves deep into the risks that the oil and gas industryโ€™s waste โ€” much of it radioactive โ€” poses to the industryโ€™s own workers and to theย public.

โ€œThere is little public awareness of this enormous waste stream,โ€ Nobel, who also reports for DeSmog, wrote, โ€œthe disposal of which could present dangers at every step โ€” from being transported along Americaโ€™s highways in unmarked trucks; handled by workers who are often misinformed and underprotected; leaked into waterways; and stored in dumps that are not equipped to contain theย toxicity.โ€

Additional documents obtained by Nobel and shared with DeSmog show that a report prepared for the American Petroleum Instituteย (API), the nation’s largest oil and gas trade group, described the risks posed by the industry’s radioactive wastes to workers as โ€œsignificantโ€ in 1982 โ€” long before the shale drilling rush unleashed new floods of wastewater from the industry โ€” including waste from the Marcellus Shale, which can carry unusually high levels of radioactiveย contamination.

A Trillion Toxicย Gallons

Oil and gas wells pump out nearly a trillion gallons of wastewater a year, Rolling Stone reported. Thatโ€™s literally a river of waste โ€” enough to replace all the water flowing from the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico for more than two and a halfย days.

Much of that wastewater, often referred to by the industry as โ€œbrine,โ€ carries high levels, not of familiar table salt, but of corrosive salts found deep below the Earthโ€™s surface, as well as toxic compounds andย carcinogens.

That water can also carry serious amounts of radioactive materials. The Rolling Stone report, labeled โ€œsoberingโ€ by theย Poynter Institute, described levels of radium as high as 28,500 picocuries per liter in brine from the Marcellus Shale, underlying Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, and West Virginia, levels hundreds of times as much as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would allow in industrial discharges from otherย industries.

NRDC scientist Bemnet Alemayehu checking a gas well for radiation in Indiana Country, PA.
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) scientistย Bemnetย Alemayehu checking a gas well for radiation inย Indiana Country, Pennsylvania.ย  Credit: Julieย Dermansky

The oil and gas industryโ€™s waste, however, isnโ€™t regulated like most other industryโ€™s wastes, slipping instead through loopholes carved out in the nationโ€™s cornerstone environmental laws, including exemptions for the industry in federal laws covering hazardousย waste.

โ€œIf I had a beaker of that on my desk and accidentally dropped it on the floor, they would shut the place down,โ€ Yuri Gorby, a microbiologist whoโ€™d studied radioactive materials at the U.S. Geological Survey andย Department of Energy, told the magazine. โ€œAnd if I dumped it down the sink, I could go toย jail.โ€

Crude Oil, Gas, andย Radiation

โ€œIt is well-known that some naturally occurring elements, uranium for example, have an affinity for crude oil,โ€ the 1982 API report says, noting that uranium can decay into elements like radium-226 (โ€œa potent source of radiation exposure, both internal and external,โ€ API‘s report explained) and radon-222 (which can โ€œcause the most severe impact to public health,โ€ itย observed).

โ€œAlmost all materials of interest and use to the petroleum industry contain measurable quantities of radionuclides that reside finally in process equipment, product streams, or waste,โ€ the 1982 reportย notes.

โ€œThis contamination can produce significant occupational exposures,โ€ API‘s report continued (emphasis inย original).

Excerpt from American Petroleum Institute's 1982 report on radioactive exposures in oil and gas industry
Excerpt from a 1982 report prepared for the American Petroleum Institute and titled โ€œAn Analysis of the Impact of the Regulation of ‘Radionuclides’ as a Hazardous Air Pollutant on the Petroleumย Industry.โ€

API‘s report focused on the possibility that the federal government might step in and regulate those radioactive materials under the Clean Air Act or under federal Superfundย laws.

โ€œDepending on the mode of definition,โ€ the report adds, โ€œvery small quantities of petroleum products could easily contain reportable quantities of [radioactive materials].โ€ A chart lists amounts as small as a half a barrel of crude oil or 17 cubic feet of natural gas as containing โ€œone reportable quantity of uranium or radonโ€ under the most restrictiveย definition.

The report labels uranium โ€œa somewhat different dilemmaโ€ than radon gas. โ€œWe estimated earlier in this paper that significant quantities of uranium potentially enter our refineries via crude oil,โ€ the report continues. โ€œLittle is known of its fate,ย however.โ€

โ€œSince the law of conservation of matter must apply, it can only end up in the product, the process waste, remain in the process equipment, or escape into the environment,โ€ the report notes, calling for more study, particularly of the industryโ€™s refining equipment andย waste.

Some of the report’s most stark language warned about the possibility of federal regulation of the industryโ€™s radioactiveย wastes.

โ€œIt is concluded that the regulation of radionuclides could impose a severe burden on API member companies,โ€ the report says, โ€œand it would be prudent to monitor closely both regulatoryย actions.โ€

API spokesperson Reid Porter provided to DeSmog the group’s responseย to the Rolling Stoneย investigation.

โ€œWe take each report of safety or health issues related to energy development very seriously,โ€ Porter said. โ€œNothing is more important than the health and safety of our workers, the local environment, and the communities where we live, operate, and raise families. Natural gas and oil companies meet or exceed strict federal and state regulations and also undergo regular inspections to ensure that all materials are managed, stored, transported, and disposed of safely. Through regular monitoring, ongoing testing, and strict handling protocols, industry operations are guided by internationally recognized standards and best practices to provide for safe working environments and publicย safety.โ€

API also pointed to a one-page document titled โ€œNORM [naturally occurring radioactive materials] in the Oil and Natural Gas Industry.โ€ As of publication time, API had not responded to questions from DeSmog regarding the 1982ย report.

10 Years Later, Hazards ‘Widespread’; 20 Years Later, Workers Sue Overย Cancers

Over a decade later, problems persisted, other documents indicate. โ€œContamination of oil and gas facilities with naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) is widespread,โ€ a 1993 paper published by the Society of Petroleum Engineers warned. โ€œSome contamination may be sufficiently severe that maintenance and other personnel may be exposed to hazardousย concentration.โ€

Nonetheless, the paper focused on the potential forย โ€œover-regulation.โ€

โ€œWhere possible, industry input should be directed to minimize an over-regulation of NORM contamination in the industry,โ€ author Peter Gray, an expert on radioactivity who formerly worked for Phillips Petroleum Co., wrote. He added that concentrations of radioactive contamination at the time were โ€œrelatively low and do not usually present a health hazard to the public or to most personnel in the industry,โ€ but added that some facilities โ€œmay be hazardous to maintenance personnel inย particular.โ€

The 1993 paper notes that some oil-producing states had passed or were considering passing laws to protect against the industryโ€™s radioactive wastes, noting in particular that Louisiana and Mississippi had regulations in effect, and that Louisiana had required โ€œradiation surveys of every petroleum facility in theย state.โ€

But state and federal regulators largely failed to act, Rolling Stone found. โ€œOf 21 significant oil-and-gas-producing states, only five have provisions addressing workers, and just three include protections for the public, according to research by [Elizabeth Ann Glass] Geltman, the public-health expert,โ€ the magazine reported. โ€œMuch of the legislation that does exist seems hardlyย sufficient.โ€

In documents dated nearly two decades later, from a 2011 lawsuit brought by more than 30 Louisiana oilfield workers whoโ€™d developed cancer, plaintiffโ€™s experts described as resulting from their exposure to radioactive materials atย work.

The 2013 plaintiff’s expert report describes in detail how jobs like roustabout, roughneck, and derrickman can expose workers to radioactive materials, including a sludgeย where radioactive elements concentrateย that collects inside pipes and so-called โ€œpipe scale,โ€ or crusty deposits that also attract radioactive materials. The case ended in October 2016, following a long string of settlements on unspecified terms by individual plaintiffs in the case, public court recordsย show.

Tracking theย Trucks

Nobel’s Rolling Stone exposรฉ depicts radioactive drilling waste sloshing into a striking array ofย corners.

For example,ย to keep dust down, the โ€œbrineโ€ can be spread on roads, like a stretch in Pennsylvania where Nobel describes a group of Amish girls strolling barefoot. Nobel addsย that contractors pick up waste directly from the wellhead and that in 2016 alone, more than 10.5 million gallons were sprayed on roads in the northwestern corner ofย Pennsylvania.

fracking waste truck in Pennsylvania
A tanker truck rolled through Pennsylvania’s Marcellus shale region in the fall of 2014. Credit:ย ยฉ 2014 Lauraย Evangelisto

The waste has also been sold at Loweโ€™s, bottled as โ€œAquaSalinaโ€ and marketed as a pet-safe way to fight ice and salt, though an Ohio state lab found it contains radium at more than 40 times the levels the Nuclear Regulatory Commission allows in discharge from industry.ย And the radium-laced waste isย spilled from trucks transporting it, in potential what the article indicates may be a violation of federalย law.

One brine truck driver, identified only as a man named Peter from Ohio, started taking his own samples after being told by another worker with a radiation detector that heโ€™d been hauling โ€œone of the โ€˜hottest loadsโ€™ heโ€™d ever seen,โ€ Rolling Stone reports. โ€œA lot of guys are coming up with cancer, or sores and skin lesions that take months to heal,โ€ Peter told the magazine. Tests by a university lab found radium levels as high as 8,500 picocuries per liter, the articleย adds.

One expert, scientist Marvin Reisnikoff, whoโ€™d served as one of the plaintiffโ€™s experts in the lawsuit brought by the Louisiana oilfield workers and co-authored the 2013 report, told Rolling Stone that a standard brine truck rolling through Pennsylvania might be carrying radioactive wastewater at levels a thousand times higher than those allowed under federal Department of Transportation (DOT) limits. But, a DOT spokesperson told Rolling Stone, federal regulators rely heavily on industry self-reporting, and the rules seem generallyย unenforced.

Justin Nobel with Mark Long, resident of Grant Township, Indiana Country, PA, checking a well on his property
Reporter Justin Nobel with Mark Long, resident of Grant Township, Indiana Country, Pennsylvania, checking a well on his property. Credit: Julieย Dermansky

Environmental groups immediately called for congressional hearings into the drilling industryโ€™s radioactiveย wastes.

โ€œThis alarming report brings into stark relief what we already knew to be true,โ€ Food & Water Watchย Policy Director Mitch Jones said in a statement calling for a congressional investigation, โ€œthat highly toxic and radioactive waste generated by fossil fuel drilling andย fracking cannot be stored or disposed of safely, and in fact is often being intentionally dispersedย in ourย communities.โ€

โ€œIt is imperative that Congress hold hearings soon to examine and expose the full extent of the threatย oil and gasย waste poses to families and workers throughout America,โ€ he added, โ€œand take urgent action to haltย fracking andย the legal and illegal dispersal of theย waste currently takingย place.โ€

Main image: Radiation warning sign at the Union Carbide uranium mill in Rifle, Colorado, in 1972. Credit: National Archives/Environmental Protection Agency, publicย domain

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Sharon Kelly is an attorney and investigative reporter based in Pennsylvania. She was previously a senior correspondent at The Capitol Forum and, prior to that, she reported for The New York Times, The Guardian, The Nation, Earth Island Journal, and a variety of other print and online publications.

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