Outside the NORM

One of the arguments Republicans like to levy against the Democratic Party is that the Democratic Party likes regulation, which makes it so, so hard for businesses to operate. I would like to offer the following as evidence that self-regulation doesn't work: Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material, or NORM, is a highly toxic by-product of gas and oil drilling. The Texas Railroad Commission allows oil companies to deal with that waste and the decontamination process via self-regulation. You can guess how they usually choose to handle it.

First of all, this is a developing story. I'm sure there's much more to find. The Denton Record-Chronicle's Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe's series is already generating some buzz. Part One went out on Sunday and Part Two came out yesterday, featuring a story about how oil companies have been storing used pipes on a blind man's property without his knowledge, the kinds of pipes that have to be treated chemically to prevent NORM contamination. That kind of abandoned equipment has caused problems in the past:

In Oklahoma, energy workers abandoned oilfield pipe and allowed other NORM accumulations to leach at the Osage Indian Reservation. A U.S. Geological Services study, led by geologist James Otton 10 years ago, found that erosion pushed NORM contamination farther afield than the well pad.

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Moreover, if the contaminated material is diluted to meet state limits, the operator is not required to notify either the state or the landowner to bury contaminated material on site.

Consider that, for a moment — if you own land and there's drilling for oil or natural gas on that land, and they want to bury some radioactive equipment on your land, they don't have to tell you. Self-regulation rarely yields much in the way of results from businesses, and the Barnett Shale is proving no different. From Part 1:

Texas Railroad Commission rules allow the industry to self-monitor for NORM, and many operators are slow to decontaminate the radioactive residue because of the cost, industry insiders say. Furthermore, only two of nearly 200 operators registered with the commission in the Barnett's core counties – Key Energy Services and Devon Energy – have provided for such decontamination in the past two years.

While natural gas collection usually creates less radioactive toxic waste than oil drilling, the Barnett Shale is overachieving, as two years has produced enough toxic waste to fill 1,000 barrels. Part Three came out today and examines what kind of radiation is produced by pulling natural gas and oil out of the earth, and that in and of itself is interesting.

What should concern residents that live on the Barnett Shale is how the extraction and resultant radioactive waste are being handled. TXsharon over at Bluedaze is an excellent resource for stories and research on the issue, in case you'd like to read up on the subject or you just live in Denton, Wise, or Tarrant County and wonder how being in the core of the Barnett Shale is likely to affect you.

I'm curious as to what the line from our elected officials will be as this problem grows, although I can tell you that the Republican response is likely to include comments about how people who don't want radioactive equipment buried on their property are enemies of business.