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In addition to analyzing wastewater from hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, the study also will analyze radioactivity in drill cuttings, drilling mud, drilling equipment, treatment solids and sediments at well pads, wastewater treatment and disposal facilities and landfill leachate, among others. The study also will test radiation levels for the equipment involved in the transportation, storage and disposal of drilling wastes.

“We are sampling the wastewater and wastes, the treatment equipment used to treat it, the trucks used to transport it, the tanks and pits used to store it and the landfills or treatment plants used to dispose of it,” said DEP spokesman Kevin Sunday. “Samples will be analyzed for the parameters discussed in the Scope of Work and Field Sampling Plan.”

According to DEP data regarding the study, among the substances to be tested for are Radium-226, Radium-228, Uranium-238, Uranium-235, Uranium-234, Thorium-232, Radon-220 and Radon-222. Released on Wednesday, the sampling plan details the type of samples the agency will collect, their locations and the method for analyzing them, DEP officials said. The quality assurance plan includes specifics on how the DEP will collect, transport and analyze the samples.

Gov. Tom Corbett’s announcement Jan. 24 of the DEP’s plan to study radiation in natural gas drilling wastewater came on the heels of extensive questioning by Shalereporter.com regarding radioactivity in fracking wastewater, regulation of the wastewater’s transport and the potential health effects of exposure to fracking wastewater, all issues covered in the series “Under the Radar,” which was published beginning Jan. 25.

Before it announced the study, the DEP had consistently denied radiation in fracking waste was even an issue. The agency told Shalereporter.com in past interviews that it did not measure radium concentrations or activities in brine, did not believe the potentially radioactive water was making its way into waterways, and that it was the sole entity in charge of the “handling, transport, disposal, storage and recycling of brine,” despite the fact that it did not measure the brine for elevated levels of radiation.

The regulatory agency also previously said it was “not aware of any evidence to suggest flowback contains dangerous amounts of radiation,” despite several reports to the contrary by environmental groups and one by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Despite plans to study the issue, the DEP maintains that radiation in relation to natural gas drilling does not pose a health risk……

Radiation levels in fracking wastewater were first addressed in a December 2011 U.S. Geological Survey report that found that millions of barrels of wastewater from unconventional wells in Pennsylvania and conventional wells in New York were 3,609 times more radioactive than the federal limit for drinking water and 300 times more radioactive than a Nuclear Regulatory Commission limit for nuclear plant discharges.

The report’s author, USGS research geologist Mark Engle, said fracking flowback from the Marcellus shale contains higher radiation levels than similar shale formations.

“There (isn’t) a lot of data but in general, the Marcellus appears to be anomalously high,” Engle said in a previous interview.

The USGS is still studying the issue, sampling wastewater from all types of oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, North Dakota and Montana. http://www.timesonline.com/news/local_news/dep-begins-fracking-radiation-tests/article_347693c5-b371-5686-bb8e-fa1f08198f36.html