Issues of nuclear safety and security are so important because nuclear power is based on the use of highly radioactive isotopes that pose a serious threat to public health and the environment. However, some other types of power generation also involve radioactive materials. The sludge produced by coal power plants have radioactive isotopes. And fracking to produce oil and gas produces waste fluids that contain radioactive materials. A lot of laws and regulations have been broken by the improper disposal of fracking wastes.
It has just been revealed that a chemical waste landfill next to the Columbia River in Oregon has accepted hundreds of tons of fracking waste from North Dakota. Environmentalist are very concerned by this flagrant violation of Oregon regulations. The Oregonian has reported that the Oregon Department of Energy officials just issued a violation notice to Chemical Waste Management with respect to the landfill they operate near the Oregon town of Arlington which is about one hundred and forty miles east of Portland. The violation notice states that the landfill has accepted over two million pounds of fracking waste from the North Dakota Bakken oil fields. The fracking waste was delivered to the Oregon landfill by rail cars in 2016, 2017 and 2019.
The landfill operators gave a Montana company permission to dump the fracking waste in the landfill. Some of the waste was tested and showed levels of radium that were more than three hundred times the levels allowed by Oregon state regulation. On average, the waste dumped in the landfill located eight miles from the Columbia River tested at one hundred and forty picocuries which are a measure of radioactivity. The maximum level that Oregon allows for radioactivity in waste stored at the landfill is five picocuries.
The Oregon Department of Energy regulators say that they will not fine the operators of the landfill for accepting radioactive fracking waste. They believe that the landfill operators did not understand the state regulations and that they were unaware that the landfill was violating the regulations.
Dan Serres is the conservation director of the Columbia Riverkeeper, a group environmental activist. He said that his group is working to pressure state leaders to discover exactly how Oregon became a dumping ground for radioactive fracking waste. He said “The big question now is what happens to this waste that has been illegally dumped in Oregon? Do they have to clean up this mess they created by accepting this waste from North Dakota? The level and scale of this infraction is alarming and galling.”
Ken Niles is the Oregon Department of Energy assistant director for nuclear safety said that the Department can only fine companies under certain circumstances. Fines can vary from sixty dollars to five hundred dollars a day. Fines can only be levied if the violator being fined has previously been notified of their violation and then repeated the prohibited activities. The Department can also fine companies which commit willful violations or violation that result in serious adverse impacts on public health or the environment. Niles claims that none of those factors apply to the case of Chemical Waste Management.
Niles said, “That could change if something were to change in our knowledge. But the company has been taking this very seriously. They have been very cooperative and want to do the right thing.”
Regulators said that they have determined that the biggest risks to people would occur if they ingested or inhaled fracking waste, if the people were directly exposed to the waste or if it emitted radon. Niles said that the state does not believe that the fracking waste in the landfill poses such threats because it is covered by at least ten feet of non-toxic materials.