TENORM: Stories on Fracking’s Radioactive Waste
PUBLIC HERALD TENORM INVESTIGATIONS
TENORM (Technically Enhance Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material)
Project: newsCOUP
Below is a complete list of Public Herald’s investigations covering or mentioning fracking’s radioactive waste, a.k.a. TENORM (technically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive material), since the beginning of the publication in 2011. Public Herald’s three documentary films — 1. Triple Divide 2. Triple Divide [Redacted] 3. INVISIBLE HAND — each include reporting on fracking’s TENORM waste.
“I Turned Blue”: Workers Share Horrifying Experiences Treating Fracking Wastewater
Project: newsCOUP Published: December 2023
“So I got up and I walked over to a post and leaned up against it with my head down. I don’t know how long I was there, but I felt awful. And my coworker Dalton comes over to me and asks me if I’m all right. And I looked up at him and said, no. And that’s when I noticed everything was blue.
“They’re a Bunch of Liars” – Records Expose Lies About Injection Well Safety
Project: newsCOUP Published: October 2022
“Everybody right now that’s in the DEP’s oil and gas management are liars,” Barr told Public Herald. “They’re really, really bad. They’re covering up, and they just cover up, cover up.”
Project: newsCOUP Published: August 2022
“The EPA never saw this application until I brought it to their attention…meaning, DEP gave [Eureka] a fake permit,” Senator Muth told Public Herald. On public record, on at least three occasions, DEP claims it secured a waiver from EPA, which skipped federal approval. But, Senator Muth said, EPA officials told her they’d never seen the permit let alone issued a waiver.
We Found The Names of Radioactive Waste Locations That Government Kept Secret
Project: newsCOUP Published: January 2022
For about six years, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has obscured the radioactive hazards of oil and gas operations. Now, for the first time, all 144 names and locations are being released by the team at Public Herald.
Part 3: “A Permanent Reactor” Fracking’s Radioactive Health Threat to Ohio Will Last 1,600 Years Without
Project: newsCOUP Published: August 2021
“This is a permanent reactor near your house, and it will always be a reactor because the waste got pooled together. And it will make as much radon and radium today as it will tomorrow and the next day and the next day and 30 years from now and 100 years from now and 500 years from now because the half life of this stuff is like, forever … So while it’s a naturally occurring material, when you concentrate it, you create a reactor.”
Project: newsCOUP Published: July 2021
Not much testing has been done on TENORM waste in Ohio, but much of the TENORM waste arriving at Ohio landfills is from the Marcellus Shale — the same shale waste that has been tested in a 2016 Pennsylvania TENORM study. In that study, radium levels from fracking waste in the Marcellus were detected as high as 13 pCi/g, more than 2.5 times greater than the Ohio code permits.
Part 1: Under “Chief’s Orders” Ohio Operates a Radioactive Industry Off The Record
Project: newsCOUP Published: July 2021
Under Chief’s Orders, privately-owned facilities have special permission to operate outside of existing law. And it all happens off the record. “They just feel that our lives are worth nothing, that we’re expendable,” said Anderson. “People’s lives matter. You can’t sacrifice them for corporate profit.”
Project: newsCOUP Published: March 2021
“Do the citizens of Scranton whose homes have been flooded from discharge from their drains have radionuclides in their homes? Is leachate mixed in with this? How dangerous is this to us?” asks Maloney. Dempsey says the cumulative effect of TENORM disposal at Keystone has never been studied. She asked landfill representatives at a town meeting if they had any idea what the cumulative effect might be of radioactive disposal at Keystone, “They had no idea,” she said.
Project: newsCOUP Published: March 2021
“When you have all of the officials in town unanimously wanting to fight this…with their support, that’s powerful,” Barr told Public Herald. And “it’s so important to protect the watershed. And that’s the main priority to me, is protecting the watershed.”
Project: newsCOUP Published: December 2020
“That first initial burst of water was just some really dirty stuff, sometimes it was as black as the screen of your phone when you shut it off, just black. I spent a lot of time underneath that rig literally getting rained on when they were pulling the pipe by that water.”
Project: newsCOUP Published: September 2020
In the meeting, Dr. Levine revealed that the academic partner to conduct the infamous oil and gas health study will be the University of Pittsburgh. Immediately upon hearing this news advocates for affected families requested a “process oversight panel” — but DOH denied the request.
Project: Documentary Published: September 2020
From Executive Producer Mark Ruffalo comes the world’s first documentary film on the Rights of Nature Movement, hailed as a “Masterpiece!” and “Paradigm Shifting” story about the current global battle between capitalism and democracy where the fight for our survival is at stake.
Project: newsCOUP Published: August 2020
DEP is not tracking how much TENORM is leaving 30 landfills via leachate to 18 Waste Water Treatment Plants. The DEP says that the transaction is private between the two entities: the landfill and the treatment plant.
newsCOUP: Ep.1 “The Criminal Investigation On Fracking In Pennsylvania”
Project: Broadcast
newsCOUP is the latest production from Public Herald Studios where we “OVERTHROW THE STATUS QUO” of disinformation and take back the truth for the public interest. Do you have thoughts about the fracking criminal investigation? Join the newsCOUP LIVE BROADCAST tonight: Wednesday, July 1st 2020 at 8:00 PM to talk about the Attorney General’s charges, Public Herald’s investigation, and the criminals at DEP who remain at large.
Watch Triple Divide [Redacted] w/ Q&A from Directors Joshua Pribanic & Melissa Troutman
Running Time: 52min
See the award-winning documentary on fracking from the news team at Public Herald publish 9,442 unreleased DEP complaint records that led to an Attorney General criminal investigation.
Investigation: SMOKING GUN Podcast: newsCOUP Published: February 2020
The idea of “safe” fracking transformed oil and gas in America for the 21st century and helped create a worldwide resurgence for an otherwise dying industry. But as we hear in this episode of newsCOUP a dangerous secret protected by regulators threatens the identity of fracking. That secret takes us down a rabbit hole from the beginning of time to the present-day legacy of untold radioactive risks in communities wherever black shale is fracked.
Investigation: SMOKING GUN Podcast: newsCOUP Published: December 2019
Pittsburgh’s Freshman State Representative Sara Innamorato is drafting a bill to regulate TENORM (Technically Enhanced Radioactive Material) from fracking waste in response to Public Herald’s leachate investigation.
Investigation: SMOKING GUN Podcast: newsCOUP Published: August 2019
A Public Herald investigation has uncovered that DEP is allowing 14 Sewage Waste Treatment Plants to discharge radioactive fracking waste as landfill leachate into 13 Pennsylvania Waterways. The process DEP created to “treat” and discharge the leachate through sewage plants appears to date as far back as the fracking boom (2009 or longer).
State Officials Remain Unindicted As Fracking Industry Undergoes Criminal Investigation (Podcast)
Investigation: SMOKING GUN Podcast: newsCOUP Published: February 2019
A criminal investigation of the oil and gas fracking industry is underway in Pennsylvania, the nation’s second largest producer of natural gas. Pennsylvania’s Office of the Attorney General (OAG) has “assumed jurisdiction over several criminal investigations involving environmental crimes” in Washington County where oil and gas companies have been indicted. The promise of accountability was advertised and pledged by Shapiro during his campaign for public office.
Investigation: Clorox Selling Pool Salt Made From Fracking Wastewater
Investigation: SMOKING GUN Published: February 2019
Public Herald has discovered that Eureka Resources, a company based in Pennsylvania, has been treating wastewater from shale gas development — a.k.a. “fracking” — and packaging the crystal byproduct as “Clorox Pool Salt” for distribution since 2017.
JKLM Energy Withdraws From Controversial Fracking Waste Treatment Project On Allegheny River
Investigation: SMOKING GUN Published: April 2018
JKLM Energy, the primary customer for a controversial fracking waste treatment facility slated for the headwater region of the Allegheny River, has announced it will withdraw from the project, adding that “a number of factors” impacted its decision to pull the plug.
Award-Winning Filmmakers & Seneca Nation Threatened By Fracking Industry For Defamation
Investigation: SMOKING GUN Published: March 2018
Directors of the award-winning fracking documentary, Triple Divide [Redacted] and the Seneca Nation of Indians have received cease and desist letters for slander against two companies in the fracking industry.
Investigation: SMOKING GUN Published: March 2018
In Coudersport Pennsylvania, over 100 members of the Seneca Nation of Indians appeared at a public meeting to oppose a fracking wastewater treatment facility planned for development on the Allegheny River, known by the Seneca as the Ohi:yo’, which means “beautiful waters.” “We’re the protestors of tomorrow,” Seneca Nation of Indians Treasurer, Maurice John, stated during public comment to the Coudersport Area Municipal Authority (CAMA) board on the evening of February, 26.
Investigation: SMOKING GUN Published: February 2018
In an untold number of drinking water complaint investigations by the Pennsylvania DEP, chemicals are being detected in trip blanks, and the Department is not retesting each of those water supplies. Even when those chemicals are associated with fracking.
Investigation: SMOKING GUN Published: January 2018
Ending a seven-year legal battle, residents’ settled for a meager sum in 2015. To get the money, Southwestern required each plaintiff to sign what has become an industry standard in oil and gas areas across the U.S. – the “non-disclosure agreement” (a.k.a. “gag order”) – whereby signing, residents trade money for their freedom of speech, agreeing never to talk about their water problems and the company again.
Radioactive Wastewater, Treated by a Private Company, Discharged to a Public Works, Sent to a River
Location: COUDERSPORT, PA Submission: Joshua B. Pribanic Published: January 2018
In the application, Epiphany uses a sample of fracking wastewater provided by a JKLM Energy operation in Potter County, and it’s loaded with radioactive material. Some results show detections 1,000 times greater than what’s safe for drinking water.
Fracking Waste Facility Proposed For Upper Allegheny River – Public Hearing 1/16/18
Location: COUDERSPORT, PA Submission: Melissa Troutman Published: January 2018
It’s in this fine print that the true nature of what this facility does is revealed: it will not simply take in “water” and make it “pure” again. It will take in toxic waste, and it will produce toxic waste – two very important facts that are absent from the discussions I’ve heard at and read in the minutes of Coudersport Borough and CAMA meetings.
Investigation: Invisible Hand Published: October 2017
Over the past seven months, Pennsylvania’s Attorney General has received an influx of phone calls from residents alleging that officials at the state’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) have ignored or covered up drinking water contamination, illness, animal deaths, and other impacts they relate to oil and gas operations.
Investigation: Invisible Hand Published: April 2017
“Should a polluting corporation have the right to inject toxic waste, or should a community have the right to protect itself? I was elected to serve this community, and to protect the rights in our Charter voted in by the people I represent. If we have to physically and nonviolently stop the trucks from coming in because the courts fail us, we will do so. And we invite others to stand with us.”
Investigation: Invisible Hand Published: February 2017
“I think the state is in bed with the gas companies. My husband calls them DGP – Department of Gas Protection – because that’s what they’re about. To hell with us.”
Hidden Data Suggests Fracking Created Widespread, Systemic Impact in Pennsylvania
Investigation: Invisible Hand Published: January 2017
After a three-year investigation in Pennsylvania, Public Herald has uncovered evidence of widespread and systemic impacts related to “fracking,” a controversial oil and gas technology.
Public Herald Calls for Federal Criminal Investigation of Pennsylvania DEP & US EPA
License: Public Press Release Published: June 2016
On June 14th, 2016, the investigative news nonprofit Public Herald called for a federal investigation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) and Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP) during testimony before the US EPA Science Advisory Board regarding water contamination related to Hydraulic Fracturing for Oil and Gas, commonly called “fracking.”
BREAKING: Oil & Gas DRILLING IMPACTS Public Drinking Water SupplIES in Potter County
Investigation: Part 4 of 9 Published: September 2015
BREAKING: Two public drinking water systems have impacted and at least five private water supplies contaminated due to ongoing pollution being caused by a natural gas fracking operation of JKLM Energy in Potter County, Pennsylvania.
Public Herald 30-Month Report Finds DEP Fracking Complaint Investigations Are “Cooked”
Investigation: Part 2 of 9 Published: September 2015
In the largest release of fracking records in Pennsylvania history, Public Herald finds Water Contamination Investigations are “Cooked”
Public Herald Releases First Documentary Feature on 18-month Fracking Investigation
Running Time: 90min
Triple Divide is said to be the only documentary of its kind on the controversial subject of fracking capable of speaking to all sides…