West Virginia Landfills Will Now Accept Unlimited Amounts Of Often Radioactive Fracking Waste

[kristopher]

West Virginia Landfills Will Now Accept Unlimited Amounts Of Often Radioactive Fracking Waste
BY KATIE VALENTINE ON DECEMBER 8, 2013

A memo released earlier this year in West Virginia gives the state’s landfills the ability to accept unlimited amounts of fracking waste, the AP reports.

The memo will create an exception for the state’s natural gas industry to longstanding laws on landfill waste, which stipulate that landfills can only take 10,000 or 30,000 tons of solid waste each month, depending on their classification. Now, fracking operations can send unlimited amounts of their solid waste — known as “drill cuttings” and composed of dirt, water, sand and chemicals — to landfills each month.

Bill Hughes, chairman of the Wetzel County Solid Waste Authority in West Virginia, told the AP he thinks the state needs to look into the potential health risks of drill cuttings. This October in Wetzel county, a landfill that before was only able to accept 9,999 tons of solid waste each month accepted more than 40,000 tons, about 75 percent of which was from drill cuttings.

“Landfills have never seen a ton of waste they don’t want ...

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/12/08/3036121/west-fracking-waste/

[hollysmom]

1. who sold out the state this time?

[Nihil]

2. Looks like a big "Oops" when people suggested Nevada for a nuclear waste dump ...

... seeing as how they could have used West Virginia with open arms ...









(Thanks for posting.)

[PamW]

3. Shuffle dirt around...

Of course, the radioactive waste here is natural radioactivity; fracking doesn't create any more radioactivity than was already in the ground.

So the radioactivity here, is natural radioactivity from Mother Nature, and the radioactivity is being dug up in one place, and buried in another.

So even though the word "radioactivity" is used for its effect; as if there is something "sinister" or "nuclear" going on; what West Virginia is basically allowing is for people to shuffle dirt around.

They are allowing people to dig up dirt one place and bury it in another place.

PamW

[kristopher]

4. Ministry panel eyes three Fukushima towns for storage of tainted soil

Ministry panel eyes three Fukushima towns for storage of tainted soil
JIJI
DEC 7, 2013

An Environment Ministry panel said Saturday it is possible to build interim facilities in three towns in Fukushima Prefecture to store soil contaminated by the nuclear catastrophe.

On-site surveys show that the towns of Okuma, Naraha and Futaba have ground solid enough to build such facilities, the panel said.

The panel’s conclusion is “a major step forward,” Senior Vice Environment Minister Shinji Inoue told reporters.

However, officials of the three towns remain cautious about hosting the facilities.

The ministry will compile concrete plans ...

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/12/07/national/ministry-panel-eyes-three-fukushima-towns-for-storage-of-tainted-soil/