Dive Brief:
- Tests were performed in West Virginia to determine the quality of wastewater; area landfills accept drill waste from the Marcellus Shale.
- According to Bill Hughes of the Wetzel County Solid Waste Authority, tests were conducted using water leaching from the Meadowfill landfill. It was found that radioactivity was detected in the sample.
- Another local site, the Wetzel landfill, also contained radioactive contaminants when tested.
Dive Insight:
As told to the Hampshire Review, Hughes said, "We haven't normally been putting radioactive material in a municipal waste landfill. We're not set up to process, handle, test, dispose. We don't know what we're doing." The Review reported the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection maintains that landfills are a "safe and appropriate place" to put the drill cuttings.
West Virginia introduced a bill in March of 2014, which passed unanimously in Senate, that would create rules about handling drill cuttings. Among other things, the bill would allow waste from horizontal wells to be disposed of at solid waste facilities in the state and set aside funds to study leaching from landfills and install radioactivity monitors.
H.B. 107 was amended on March 29, 2014 to include additional directives relating to the disposal and monitoring of drill wastes from fracking.
