So Much For The Radioactive Drinking Water Scare
As we noted in "Reruns of the NORM Show", recent stories about drinking water drawn from rivers downstream of water treatment plants that handle waste water from gas production operations in Pennsylvania have been long on worries about naturally occurring radioactive materials temporarily concentrated in flowback water but short on any increase in radionuclides downstream. To see if there is in fact anything to worry about Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) began monitoring the water downstream of such plants last fall. Yesterday the results came in.
Pittsburgh quickly discovered that good news isn't the news EPA wants to hear. See "EPA Wants Tougher Test of Pa. Water" in today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Apparently EPA fired off a letter immediately upon learning of the good news. In it the agency demanded permitting and further testing. Its author writes "I stand ready to provide EPA's support and to utilize our federal authorities to require drinking water and wastewater monitoring if that becomes necessary. In addition, EPA is prepared to exercise its enforcement authorities as appropriate where our investigations reveal violations of federal law".
Apparently EPA refuses to take "it's safe" for an answer.
