Potentially radioactive material spilling out of trailers near Watford City
22
February, 2014
MCKENZIE
COUNTY — Federal and state health officials are investigating
leaking trailers loaded with thousands of pounds of potentially
radioactive filter socks and debris parked on rural property
southwest of Watford City.
A
special agent with the Environmental Protection Agency criminal
investigations unit is assigned to the case and a radiation control
team from the state Health Department was on scene Friday.
Brad
Torgerson, with the state Health Department’s waste management
division, said the team determined that radiation levels “do not
appear to present any public health hazards.” He said the company,
RP Services, of Riverton, Wyo., was told to put the waste in proper
containers and submit a plan for cleanup.
A
formal enforcement action is possible, Torgerson said.
EPA
special agent Dan O’Malley contacted state health officials about
the waste; when contacted by the Tribune, O’Malley said he could
not confirm his agency’s investigation.
The
RP Services trailers are parked on property owned by Russ and Mary
Williams, whose separate company was involved in an illegal filter
sock disposal that led to a $27,000 fine at the McKenzie County
landfill operation last summer.
The
filter socks are a notorious source of radioactive material because
they concentrate naturally occurring radiation from geology down the
well hole.
The
Health Department says the filters should not be landfilled anywhere
in North Dakota and instead, should be handled by certified companies
for disposal at hazardous waste sites in other states.
The
trailers loaded with the leaking material and filter socks were
reported Thursday to McKenzie County landfill director Rick
Schreiber.
Schreiber
has adopted a tough policy and his is the first landfill in the
country to install radiation detection pedestals that monitor every
load coming into the landfill.
Filter
socks, when found, are subject to a $1,000 fine per sock, amounting
to nearly $250,000 in fines to date.
Based
on images of the scene, Schreiber said he felt sick and angry and he
immediately contacted local, state and federal sources.
“When
you can clearly see liquid dripping and running off, there are
violations. When they (socks) are that orange color, we know they’re
hot,” Schreiber said. “This is the most (filter socks) I’ve
ever seen,” he said.
North
Dakota regulates any radiation level above 5
picocuries as hazardous.
Schreiber
said his operators have tested filter socks “so hot our meters are
maxed out” at readings equivalent to 1,000 picocuries.
RP
Services spokesman Gil Roden said his company is taking steps to
properly dispose of the filter socks.
He
said North Dakota’s protocol with filter socks is new to his
company and it is taking steps to find proper disposal.
“Now
we know how to do it,” Roden said. He said he expects to pay $7,500
per container for disposal.
Schreiber
said oil companies know the filter socks are inherently radioactive
and are aware of the expense of hauling them to approved sites.
He
said the state needs to assess an environmental fee along with well
permits and then set up a collection and disposal system that
companies participate in.
“This
is a multi-pronged problem. This ... is not going to be tolerated. If
I have to be the one to stir the stick in the hornet’s nest, fine,
so be it,” he said.
The
Health Department is awaiting results of a study on radioactive oil
field and other waste before deciding whether to raise its allowable
limit of radiation and how disposal sites would be constructed.
Because
landfills won’t take the socks and levy fines when haulers are
caught bringing them in, they sometimes end up in community Dumpsters
around towns and roadside ditches.
Jerry
Samuelson, McKenzie County’s emergency manager, said the RP
Services incident illustrates how oil development stretches local
governments.
“What
can we do? We don’t know how to deal with this,” Samuelson said.
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