Before the proposed fracking wastewater dumping date, a public hearing will take place to hear appeals against it. It’s vital to show strong community support against AIS plans . If we can do this, then there is a good chance they won’t look to East Hants to accept their proposal either. There has been a lot of discussion that the amount of Reverse Osmosis treated wastewater poses no threat to the ecosystem or residents because of the volume of water that travels in and out of the bay. This isn’t true.
In another article on this site we looked at the potential hazards of depending on Reverse Osmosis. It’s doubtful that all of the water going through the system would be adequately treated. And, from the reports in the documents on this site we see that even if successfully treated, there would still be small amount of NORMs get through the membranes of the system, and any other chemicals, where the particles break down to be smaller than water.
Then there were numerous toxic chemicals, as discussed in the article ‘Warning to Visitors to Nova Scotia‘ that the wastewater is said to contain. This information was discovered from the ‘Freedom of Information Act‘ in the report written by Ken Summers for Ecology Action Centre, but when Environment Minister Randy Delorey sent wastewater samples to a commercial lab in the US to test for these specialized chemicals — the tests came back as undetectable amounts. This seems a little odd…
To make matters worse, in a paper published online on 2 April in Environmental Health Perspectives, it says:
“We observed that radium decay products are initially absent from produced fluids due to differences in solubility. However, in systems closed to the release of gaseous radon, our model predicts that decay products will begin to ingrow immediately and (under these closed-system conditions) can contribute to an increase in the total radioactivity for over 100 years.”
This means that the small amounts of radium-226 and other NORMs are still a problem, even in small quantities. We’ve already discussed how it has a half-shelf life of 1,600 years, but after it has been brought to the surface it starts decaying immediately. This means it breaks down into several other radioactive chemicals and soon becomes Radon. These tests were done with flowback water that was contained in containers and not open ponds. Open ponds, such as those in Debert will already be emitting toxic radon.
Radon, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency, “…causes lung cancer, and is a threat to health because it tends to collect in homes, sometimes in very high concentrations. As a result, radon is the largest source of exposure to naturally occurring radiation.” Their article goes into a lot of detail if you would like to know more about it.
An article by The Tyee, Fracking Increases Radon Gas Hazard, US Study Finds, it warns that Southern Alberta is a hotspot for Radon. Because of the fracking, it says:
A 2012 Health Canada study found that more than seven per cent of the homes measured in Calgary, Peace River, David Thompson and Aspen regional health districts had dangerous levels of radon (200 becquerels per cubic metre). High levels of radon have also been found in northeast B.C. That geographic region has also witnessed intense shale gas activity over the last decade.
From a discussion on Facebook it was seen that the information about the radium decaying into radon was read by the Nova Scotia Department of Environment who had stated in the discussion , “Yes, but these are two different applications.” Covered tanks are not open ponds and the Bay of Fundy is not a contained system.
Radium-226 is five times the density of water. It isn’t all — going to be washed out with the tide. It’s going to sink into the sediment, and along the shores of the bay and wherever else it floods onto. The agitation of the Radium-226 caused by the tide is going to increase the decay rate so that Radon escaping into the air from the bay will be exponentially increased to an amount that has not been tested for. This puts everyone living along the coast, at an increased risk of developing lung cancer.
Environment Minister Randy Delorey’s report didn’t mention any of this, but then the lab tests he had requested, didn’t detect all of the chemicals that were purported to have been in the samples, as reported by the ‘Freedom of Information Act’. For that matter, Radon is a by-product of Radium-226, and it escapes into the air, and into the environment, so it isn’t going to be processed anyway.
It wouldn’t be any surprise to see a couple of other “quick reports” after they are approved to dump the wastewater. Then they take the portable Reverse Osmosis system over to East Hants, show them the reports and then dump the 20 million litres being held there into the bay too. Another quick lab test by the government and approved by the government showing that went well too — and they can lift the moratorium on fracking in this province and open it up.
This is one reason why it’s vitally important to show your support by attending the public hearing, the date of which, is yet to be announced. If they overcome the objections of the Colchester County appeals, it will have very negative ramifications for many generations to come.