Radiation safety

Fracked gas exposes families in PA and NY to radioactivity

The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is proposing amendments to 6 NYCRR Part 380, which regulates Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (TENORM). These are materials whose radiation level is heightened through a production or engineering process. So far, the DEC has failed to apply the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s TENORM definition to the stuff coming out of Pennsylvania fracked wells. While all fracked gas has some radon, gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale in Pennsylvania can be 30 times the mitigation level recommended by the EPA when it reaches your stove. Radon decays to (radioactive) polonium and lead. None of these substances burn. All of them cause cancer.

Despite Governor Cuomo’s stated commitment to the Paris Accord, to increasing renewables while reducing greenhouse gas emissions, our reliance on fracked gas continues to grow. The use of fracked gas for heating, electricity generation, and home cooking all expose New Yorkers to radon, polonium, and lead.  Workers are exposed when they perform maintenance on infrastructure. Residents in the pipeline right-of-ways are exposed to radon from fugitive methane and the discharge from compressor blowdowns.