When the Bakken oil boom started, the oil industry knew they were going to produce radioactive waste and they knew what they were required to do with it. But, they didn’t put that into their business plans. The process to increase the allowable level of radioactivity in our state began about two years ago with behind-closed-door meetings with the state Health Department and the oil industry. The result is, once again, a green light to the oil industry, this time to dump more radioactive waste in our state.

The Dalrymple administration is using parts of a report from the Argonne National Laboratory to claim the increased radioactivity is just fine. A closer look at the Argonne Report shows there are some hidden trade offs that make more radioactivity not such a good idea for people.

The Argonne Report is based on 25,000 tons per year of oilfield waste in a single landfill containing the higher levels of radioactive waste. Based on this, the study estimates people living within a 50-mile radius of a new 25,000-ton radioactive dump maybe exposed to twice the normal amount of radiation. This means our tradeoff is more childhood leukemia, illness and death.

Landfill workers exposed to the higher levels of radioactivity would potentially receive the highest estimated exposure and Argonne recommended decreasing the volume of radioactive wastes at a single landfill or alternately limiting employee hours of exposure. The exposure to oilfield workers not equipped with personal protective equipment was estimated to approach or exceed the recommended yearly exposure. Employees not handling the waste, but working nearby were not included in the study.

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