THE CASE AGAINST HYDROFRACKING - Hydrofracking: What Everyone Needs to Know - page 63

as “tracers,” to help define the injection profile, the fractures, and the fluid flow
created by hydrofracking. 66
Naturally occurring radionuclides are a subject of increasing concern. Their
half-lives are longer than those of man-made isotopes, and they linger in the envir-
onment longer. Long-term exposure to radiation can have adverse health effects;
even small amounts of exposure to radionuclides can be harmful. 67 When radon
(a carcinogenic gas) and its byproducts decay, they can waft into the air, lodge
in lungs, and cause lung cancer. If a gas well's radon-laced flowback mixes with
drinking water, it can cause cancer of the internal organs, especially stomach can-
cer.
Industry officials and EPA regulators have played down the health risks of
fracking. 68 But pediatricians affiliated with the Preventive Medicine and Family
Health Committee of the state of New York have called for a moratorium on hy-
drofracking until its impacts on health are better understood. 69
In 2011, the New York Times uncovered what it termed “never-reported studies”
by the EPA and a “confidential study by the drilling industry” concluding that flow-
back radionuclides cannot be completely diluted. 70 The newspaper has also repor-
ted that the Pennsylvania DEP has turned a blind eye to these concerns, requesting,
rather than requiring, gas companies to treat their own flowback rather than send-
ing it to public water treatment facilities, for example.
What Are Injection Wells?
As mentioned above, most states outside the Northeast dispose of flowback by
pumping it deep underground into injection wells regulated by the EPA.
In Texas, wastewater injection wells are becoming a common phenomenon.
Truckloads of flowback run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at a rate of 30 to
40 per day in some small south Texas towns. The amount of wastewater disposed
of in state wells has jumped from 46 million barrels in 2005 to nearly 3.5 billion
barrels in 2011, according to state regulators. 71 The state has over 8,000 active dis-
posal wells, which is reportedly far more than Ohio or Pennsylvania. Texas has an
additional 25,000 wells that use waste fluids to hydrofrack for additional oil and
gas. 72
Complaints to the Railroad Commission of Texas, the state's oil and gas regulat-
or, argue that wastewater has spilled from pumps, tanks, and storage ponds, killing