Fracking was recently banned in the Delaware River Basin, along the eastern edge of Pennsylvania. However, fracking and related activity in the rest of the state is ongoing. The hot spots are near Washington County and surrounding counties in the southwest, and Tioga, Bradford, and Susquehanna counties in the northeast.
]]>From the article:
“Oil fields across the country … have been found to produce brine that is highly radioactive. ….Tanks, filters, pumps, pipes, hoses, and trucks that brine touches can all become contaminated, with the radium building up into hardened “scale,” concentrating to as high as 400,000 picocuries per gram. With fracking — which involves sending pressurized fluid deep underground to break up layers of shale — there is dirt and shattered rock, called drill cuttings, that can also be radioactive. But brine can be radioactive whether it comes from a fracked or conventional well; the levels vary depending on the geological formation, not drilling method. …. the Marcellus shale, underlying Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and New York, has tested the highest. Radium in its brine can average around 9,300 picocuries per liter, but has been recorded as high as 28,500.”