{"id":6036,"date":"2015-02-26T06:56:37","date_gmt":"2015-02-26T11:56:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=6036"},"modified":"2015-02-26T06:56:37","modified_gmt":"2015-02-26T11:56:37","slug":"as-oil-prices-collapse-north-dakota-considers-weakening-standards-on-radioactive-drilling-waste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=6036","title":{"rendered":"As Oil Prices Collapse, North Dakota Considers Weakening Standards on Radioactive Drilling Waste"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Oil Prices Collapse, North Dakota Considers Weakening Standards on Radioactive Drilling Waste<\/a><\/h3>\n

As the collapse of oil prices threatens North Dakota’s shale drilling rush, state regulators are considering a move they say could save the oil industry millions of dollars: weakening the state’s laws on disposing of radioactive\u00a0waste.<\/p>\n

The move has been the subject of an intensive lobbying effort by drillers, who produce up to\u00a075 tons per day<\/a>\u00a0of waste currently considered too hazardous to dispose of in the\u00a0state.<\/p>\n

For every truckload of that waste, drillers could save at least $10,000 in hauling costs, they argue. State regulators\u00a0calculate<\/a>\u00a0that by raising the radioactive waste threshold ten-fold, the industry would shave off roughly $120 million in costs per\u00a0year.<\/p>\n

But many who live in the area say they fear the long-term consequences of loosened disposal rules combined with the state’s poor track record on preventing illegal\u00a0dumping.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don’t want to have when this oil and coal is gone, to be nothing left here, a wasteland, and I’m afraid that’s what might happen,\u201d farmer Gene Wirtz of Underwood,\u00a0ND<\/span>\u00a0told\u00a0KNX<\/span>\u00a0News<\/a>, a local\u00a0TV<\/span>\u00a0station. \u201cAny amount of radiation beyond what you’re already getting is not a good\u00a0thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Environmental groups have also objected that the rule change would put private companies’ profits before public\u00a0health.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Oil Prices Collapse, North Dakota Considers Weakening Standards on Radioactive Drilling Waste As the collapse of oil prices threatens North Dakota’s shale drilling rush, state regulators are considering a move they say could save the oil industry millions of dollars: weakening the state’s laws on disposing of radioactive\u00a0waste. The move has been the subject […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[331,3111,1775,3794],"class_list":["post-6036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-environment","tag-fracking","tag-hyrdraulic-fracturing","tag-oil-price-collapse","tag-radioactive-waste"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6036"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6037,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6036\/revisions\/6037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}