On April 19, a truck delivering waste from a fracking operation in Greene County, Pennsylvania, was quarantined after being rejected by a hazardous waste landfill as too dangerous.
The truck was carrying highly radioactive radium-226 in concentrations 86 times higher than allowed per EPA limits.
After being quarantined at a the landfill, the truck was sent back to the fracking site, which is operated by Rice Energy.
Radium, it should be noted, is a routine by-product of fracking — the fossil fuel extraction method behind the ongoing “natural gas boom.”
“Radium is a well known contaminant in fracking operations,” writes Jeff McMahon at Forbes. John Poister, a spokesperson for Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection, said “the material in question is radium 226, which is what we expect from shale drill cuttings.”
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