Abraham says there’s so much radiation in the deep shale rocks that it must inevitability be getting into landfills. Gary Abraham is an environmental lawyer in Western New York working to block Casella from expanding its landfills. Casella wants New York state regulators to let the company take even more drill cuttings from Pennsylvania.īut not everyone is convinced this landfill is taking sufficient precautions.

West Virginia passed a law segregating drill cuttings from other parts of landfills. Pennsylvania is conducting a study of radiation in the Marcellus Shale. States in and around the fracking boom are working through what to do about all this naturally radioactive waste from drilling. RICHMOND: Shilling says they’ve never had a load of cuttings that exceeded acceptable levels of radiation enter the site. And as they drive onto the scales, it registers what radioactivity might be in it. Marcellus Shale Gas Well (photo: WCN 24/7, creative commons 2.0) RICHMOND: Shilling points out a pair of white tubes, each about five feet tall, sitting on posts at the entrance to the landfill. SHILLING: See this thing that says Ludlum? They’re not allowed to take cuttings that are too radioactive. Shilling sits in a pickup truck at the landfill, watching trucks loaded with piles of dirt crawl by. All this material comes up before a well is fracked it doesn’t include fracking chemicals. They are actually a mixture of rock cut through the gas-rich Marcellus Shale, fluids called drilling mud, used to help bore the well, and liquids found deep underground. The cuttings look like heaps of wet black sand, wrapped in a black plastic liner. The company operates the Chemung County landfill, where piles of drill cuttings trucked in from Marcellus Shale wells in nearby Pennsylvania are scattered around the yard. RICHMOND: Shilling is vice president of Casella Waste Systems. SHILLING: The stuff with the plastic there-that is the drill cuttings. And that’s what Larry Shilling has to watch out for. The element of greatest concern is radium. A recent study found it’s three-times higher than in other rock layers. But the Marcellus Shale is an unusually radioactive underground formation. RICHMOND: All rocks have some radiation in them. Matt Richmond reports for WSKG and the Allegheny Front, and has the story. And while New York state has a moratorium on fracking, it does accept plenty of radioactive drilling waste from nearby Pennsylvania, and that has touched off intense debate.

And the radioactive debris, or drill cuttings, left behind by fracking can contaminate water unless properly treated. Fracking is mostly driving the oil and gas boom in America, but that has its own environmental problems, including the natural radioactivity of the rocks that cover the Marcellus shale in the Eastern U.S. is not so eager to embrace the Keystone XL pipeline is the growth of its own energy production, as Shawn McCarthy mentioned. Initially, Neal was distrustful of this offer given that he never forgave the Squadron for being responsible for Kyle's death, but he eventually joined the Squadron and finally wearing his adopted father's wings.CURWOOD: Concerns about global warming aside, one reason the U.S. When the Squadron returned to their world, Neal was approached by Hyperion who want him to join his team against Earth's usurpers. However, he began to have doubts about his resistance for being too militant in their actions and straying away from what he had taught them. When the Squadron vanished during the crisis, and corporations took power, Neal followed Nighthawk's example again and recruited what forces he could to form a resistance known as the Nighthawks. Although Neal didn't wear the wings as he believed he haven't truly earned them. Īfter Nighthawk died following his fallout with the Squadron Supreme and their 'Utopia Program', Neal dedicated his life he owed Kyle Richmond to keeping alive the ideals he fought and died for by becoming his successor. As without Nighthawk's tutelage and parental figure, Neal would have followed the same path as his biological father. The hero adopted Neal and raised him as his own, lifting him from his downtrodden background and teaching him about decency, honor, and justice. Because the Huckster died in battle with him, Nighthawk felt responsible for his death and for Neal who had been orphaned by it.

Neal's father was Nighthawk's greatest archenemy until he died when one of his schemes backfired on him. Neal was the son of the Huckster, a vicious psychopath who reveled in grotesque forms of murder.

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