North Dakota Enviro. Groups Call for NORM Study Release

A pair of environmental activist groups in North Dakota are demanding the release of the state’s draft study on Naturally-Occurring Radioactive Materials (NORM) disposal in local landfills. The Dakota Resource Council and the North Dakota Energy Industry Waste Coalition have concerns that the oil and gas industry will have final say over the study’s findings, resulting in unsafe disposal practices. The increased activity in oil and gas exploration, especially in the Bakkan Shale of North Dakota, has increased the volumes of NORM waste within the state.

 

In an effort to better understand the waste, the state, with the help of Argonne National Laboratories, completed a study of the waste, which it received last week, but the state will not release the draft study until it completes its edits, a process the environmental groups find secretive. “Because there has been a continuous pattern of the fox guarding the hen house in the relationship between the state Health Department and the oil industry, it is critically important that state officials do not hide the findings of Argonne National Laboratories about acceptable levels of cancer causing radioactive waste,” said Darrell Dorgan, a leader of the North Dakota Energy Industry Waste Coalition. Linda Weiss, chairperson of the Dakota Resource Council Board of Directors, added, “A public look at the original Argonne report might prevent more oil industry and state official collusion to make it fit their own wishes.”