One of the most dangerous and least understood aspects of oil and gas waste is the incredibly high levels of radioactivity that can accumulate in the brine and sludge produced during fracking. To fully grasp the risk, it's important to understand the basics of radioactivity and how it poses a threat to both the environment and human health.

What is Radioactivity?

Radioactivity is measured in units called picocuries (pCi), and these measurements are often compared to what’s known as "background radiation"—the level of natural radiation that exists in a given environment. The Earth and the universe have naturally occurring radiation, meaning all living things are exposed to low levels of radiation every day. When we hear about something being a certain number of picocuries over background, it means the radiation levels are elevated beyond what is naturally present in that area, which can be a cause for concern.

Types of Radiation:

There are four main types of radiation we should be concerned about: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and X-rays. Each behaves differently, and each has different effects on the human body:

    Alpha Radiation:

This type of radiation emits alpha particles, which don’t travel far and can’t penetrate the skin. However, if alpha particles are inhaled or ingested, they can cause significant harm. Inside the body, alpha particles damage cells by "ping-ponging" around and interacting directly with tissues, increasing the risk of cancers due to their intense local energy deposition.

    Beta Radiation:

Beta particles can travel further than alpha particles and can penetrate the skin. While they typically cause less internal damage than alpha particles, beta radiation is still dangerous, especially if inhaled or ingested. Externally, beta radiation can lead to skin burns and other forms of cellular damage.

    Gamma Radiation:

Gamma rays are highly penetrating and can travel long distances through the body. Unlike alpha particles, gamma radiation passes straight through, causing damage as it does but without lingering. Prolonged or high-level exposure to gamma radiation can increase the risk of serious health issues, including cancer.

    X-Rays:

While X-rays themselves are not common in oil and gas waste, they play an important role in detecting alpha radiation. Alpha particles are difficult to detect from a distance because they don’t travel far or penetrate deeply. However, when alpha particles interact with certain materials, they can produce secondary X-rays through a process called Bremsstrahlung radiation. These X-rays are more penetrating and can be picked up by Geiger counters and other detectors, allowing for indirect detection of alpha radiation from a distance at contaminated waste sites.

How Radiation Works:

To understand how radiation can be dangerous, think of a radioactive substance, such as uranium or radium, like a small factory constantly firing off particles at super speeds. These particles—alpha, beta, or gamma—are energy being emitted from the atom as it decays or breaks down. When these particles hit something, especially living tissue, they can damage cells by breaking their bonds, which can lead to mutations (such as cancer).

Alpha particles, for instance, don’t travel far in the air or on your skin. However, if you inhale them through contaminated dust or ingest them through contaminated water or food, they wreak havoc inside your body. They can bounce around and damage cells indefinitely, significantly increasing the risk of cancers like lung cancer. On the other hand, gamma rays are more like bullets that pass through the body. They do cause damage as they pass through but are less likely to stick around and accumulate the way alpha particles do.

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Radioactivity in Fracking Waste:

Fracking waste presents a significant radioactive threat, with radium-226 and radium-228 being some of the most dangerous isotopes present in the brine and sludge produced during operations. These radioactive elements have half-lives that can exceed 1,600 years, meaning they remain hazardous for an incredibly long time. This is why the waste doesn't just disperse—it accumulates, posing long-term risks to the environment and human health. Once an area becomes a hotspot for radiation, it is likely to stay that way for generations, affecting not just current residents but future ones as well.

The radioactive particles in fracking waste don't just affect the environment—they also bioaccumulate in our bodies. When humans are exposed to alpha particles through inhalation or ingestion, these particles can settle in our organs and tissues. Unlike a one-time exposure to external radiation (like an X-ray), internal exposure to radioactive elements repeatedly damages cells.

Each pass-through of radiation in the body acts like a burn—it may not seem catastrophic immediately, but if that area is "burned" again and again over time, the cell damage accumulates, leading to mutations and a greatly increased risk of cancer. This is particularly concerning for workers and communities that face ongoing exposure through contact with contaminated water, air, or soil.

These radioactive elements are not a problem that can be shrugged off or ignored. Their persistence means that the effects of improper disposal will be felt for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, leaving long-lasting scars on the environment and future generations.

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More Exemptions:

These dangers are compounded by the fact that the oil and gas industry has been granted government exemptions ( Through the Resource Conservation act of 1976) allowing it to bypass critical regulations. Despite fracking waste's frightening levels of radioactive elements, such as radium-226, and other hazardous materials, this waste is not classified as hazardous or radioactive. In any other industry, waste with these levels of radiation would be subject to strict handling and disposal protocols, but the oil and gas industry simply doesn't need to play by those rules.

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As a result, radioactive fracking waste is often treated as if it is just generic industrial waste. this means it can be dumped in municipal landfills, the same landfills used for everyday household trash. Throughout the process, from the trucks carrying it, the facilities processing it, the workers dealing with it, to the final destination, this material is viewed as and treated largely as if it poses no significant threat to human health or the environment despite the fact being the exact opposite. 

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This lack of regulation leaves workers who handle the waste in the dark. Without any requirement for special training or protective gear, many workers are unaware they are dealing with radioactive materials. Worse yet, they are paid as if they are handling regular waste, without any compensation for the heightened risks they face daily. Brine truck haulers are often hired as "water haulers" and paid as such whereas truck drivers in another industry, handling such hazardous material, would typically be paid 50-75% more. 
 

By treating this waste as non-hazardous, the industry avoids the costs of proper disposal, while the public and workers bear the brunt of the health and environmental risks. This regulatory gap ensures the industry continues to operate without accountability, while the long-term impacts on communities and ecosystems grow ever more severe over time as this radioactive mess continues to accumulate day by day, truck load after truck load. 

 

What actually happens to the waste?:

 

Once fracking waste leaves the well pad, it typically undergoes two primary processes: liquid waste injection and solid waste downblending. Both processes, while intended to safely dispose of this hazardous material, are riddled with significant issues that can have long-term environmental impacts.

Liquid Waste – Injection Wells

The liquid waste from fracking operations, which contains a mix of water, chemicals, heavy metals, and radioactive materials, is usually injected into injection wells. These are often retired oil and gas wells that have been retrofitted to hold wastewater deep underground. On paper, this sounds like a logical solution—re-injecting waste back into the ground after extracting valuable resources. However, this practice is far from foolproof.

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The primary issue is that underground formations are not perfect containment vessels. The belief that waste can simply be injected back into the earth and stay there forever ignores the reality of how unpredictable underground conditions can be. Waste can migrate, seeping into nearby water tables, or reemerge at other well sites, contaminating the surface. There have also been cases where underground injection has caused seismic activity—induced earthquakes—that can lead to further fractures in the rock, allowing waste to escape containment. This method, while widely used, is not without its risks, and it underscores the hubris involved in thinking we can control nature on such a large scale.

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Solid Waste – Downblending

The solid waste, such as sludge, drill cuttings, and radioactive sediment, is typically sent for downblending. This process involves mixing the solid radioactive waste with inert materials like corncobs, lime, dirt, or even fly ash from coal-fired power plants (itself a hazardous material). The purpose of this isn’t to neutralize the radioactivity but to dilute it enough so that the total concentration of radioactivity is lower. This dilution allows the waste to pass through Geiger counters at landfills, which would otherwise reject it for being too radioactive. The landfills—often the same ones used for household waste—are then filled with this diluted, but still radioactive, material. This practice is well known by regulators, landfills, and the industry, yet it persists as a standard method of disposal.

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The reason downblending came about is tied to the history of how fracking and oil waste were handled. For years, fracking waste was taken directly to municipal landfills, but as landfills began installing their own Geiger counters, they started rejecting waste with high levels of radiation. In response, downblending became a workaround to get waste past these radiation detectors. This process fills landfills more quickly, reducing their capacity over time, and leaves radioactive waste buried in facilities not designed to handle such hazardous material.

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The "Cowboy" Era of Waste Disposal

While the processes of injection wells and downblending are part of the formal disposal system today, it’s worth noting that, historically, waste from fracking and conventional oil and gas drilling wasn’t always handled this way. In the early days of these industries, particularly at the height of the fracking boom, it wasn’t uncommon for waste to simply be dumped in fields, creeks, or over hillsides. Though this wasn’t an official practice, the "cowboy" culture of the early oil and gas industry led to dangerous and environmentally reckless behavior that would be unthinkable today—at least on the record.

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Trains

In addition to injection wells and down blending, there is a third method of disposal reserved for extremely radioactive fracking waste that even the industry can’t ignore. When the waste reaches levels of radioactivity that can’t be diluted or downplayed, it is loaded onto trains and transported across the country to specialized radioactive waste disposal sites in states like Utah and Nevada, where it is buried deep underground.

Even though this may seem like a more responsible solution, it raises a number of concerning questions. Burying large amounts of radioactive material is controversial in its own right, but that’s a debate for another time. The more immediate issue is that this method doesn’t work perfectly either. Reports have shown that trains carrying radioactive fracking waste have been found leaking material as they travel across the country, potentially contaminating vast areas along their routes.

This leads to the even bigger fear of a train derailment. If a train carrying radioactive waste were to crash or derail, the consequences could be disastrous, leading to widespread contamination. Given the increasing frequency of train accidents, particularly in rural areas, this risk is far from hypothetical. While this method is used for the most radioactive waste, it still presents significant dangers, both in transit and at the disposal sites themselves.

In short, while this method is employed for the most dangerous waste, it is by no means a foolproof solution, and it adds another layer of risk to the already hazardous issue of fracking waste disposal.

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The Problem That Remains

Even with these official disposal methods in place, which are certainly an improvement from simply dumping the waste over a hillside, they fail to address the real dangers posed by fracking waste. Downblending, in particular, is little more than a shady workaround—a trick the industry uses to dilute radioactive waste just enough to sneak it past Geiger counters at landfills. It doesn’t actually reduce the amount of radioactive material, but merely spreads the risk across a larger volume of material. Worse, this practice is known and largely ignored by regulators and landfills, who turn a blind eye to the fact that they’re accepting radioactive waste disguised as regular industrial material.

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Injection wells, while more structured, are far from foolproof. They have a history of leaks, migration, and even triggering earthquakes, which can allow contamination to seep into water tables or resurface in unexpected places, sometimes going undetected for years.

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In the end, despite the appearance of sophistication with these engineered "solutions," the stark reality is that they amount to nothing more than sweeping the problem under the rug. These disposal methods—whether it’s downblending radioactive waste or injecting it back into the ground—are simply ways to delay the inevitable consequences. When you cut through the industry’s misleading language, it’s clear these solutions do little to actually address the hazards and instead shift the burden to future generations.

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The refusal to acknowledge the radioactive threat posed by this waste, along with the legal exemptions and shoddy workarounds, puts unsuspecting communities and industry workers at significant risk. All of this is done in the name of maximizing profits, without regard for the long-term health and environmental consequences. It’s an unacceptable situation, where public safety and environmental integrity are compromised for the benefit of an industry that consistently evades accountability.

The future generations who will inherit these contaminated sites and degraded environments will be the ones forced to reckon with the true costs of this short-sighted, profit-driven system.