Dozens of people crammed into a room at a state office building in downtown Fairmont on a Thursday in mid-November.
They came to hear from the West Virginia Department of Health (DoH), the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Residents are concerned about an explosion and fire last year at a facility that processes fracking waste, generated through hydraulic fracturing to recover oil and gas.
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The fracking revolution has caused the United States to become the world’s leading producer of oil and gas. The Appalachian Basin is the most productive gas region in the country thanks to fracking.
Fracking uses high-pressure injections of fluid, mostly water and chemicals, into a well to create cracks in deep shale rock formations to free the natural gas and petroleum trapped inside them.
With that surge in production has come a host of environmental problems, including what to do with the fracking brine once it’s been used. Fracking brine contains a concentration of radioactive materials.
The 2023 explosion
The blast happened in May 2023 at the former Fairmont Brine Processing site a few miles from town, near the Monongahela River. Residents wanted to know if they were exposed to anything that could affect their health and safety.
Cindy Morris, who lives across the river about half a mile from the site, said she had very little guidance from local officials about what to do when the explosion happened.
“It was a huge explosion,” she said. “I was in my house, I heard it, felt it. And then the smoke came our way. But I can’t say that it was thick or that I thought we should shelter, not go outside.”
Though state and federal officials told concerned residents at the meeting that the material tested at lower levels of radiation than a chest X-ray, they said anyone authorized to be on the site must have full protective gear.
That includes a full-face, positive pressure, self-contained breathing apparatus, a full-body chemical and vapor protective suit, plus chemical-resistant inner and outer gloves as well as chemical-resistant boots.
The EPA’s on-scene coordinator, Christine Wagner, described the protective equipment as what you’d see in asbestos removal.
Richard Cummins attended the meeting and said he drove trucks into and out of Fairmont Brine Processing when it was in operation. He said he tried to send off his own samples of the brine to various laboratories. They turned him away.
“I’ve sent my own samples off. They will not test it,” he said.” The places I sent private will not test it when they figured out it was oil and gas waste. No. I called one in California, one in Florida. We even called one in England.”
It took months after the explosion for the agencies to erect fencing and a locked gate to limit access to the site.
Little to no official testing of the air or water outside the perimeter has taken place.
Who will pay for the cleanup?
Fairmont Brine Processing went out of business in 2018, so it can’t pay for the cleanup. Neither will the oil and gas industry. It’s exempt from a 1976 federal law that regulates hazardous waste disposal.
Instead, taxpayers will pay to remove the waste, under the EPA’s Superfund program. Officials at the meeting said they’re working on finding a place that will accept the material, which can’t be sent to just any landfill. They also have to find a contractor qualified to remove the material.
Del. Joey Garcia, a Marion County Democrat who was just elected to a state Senate seat, attended the meeting and asked why it took so long for the agencies to secure the site.
Still, he said it was good for officials to answer the public’s questions.
“And it’s obvious that a lot of people are concerned about this issue, especially those who are close to the facility,” he said. “On one hand, it was nice to hear about what their plans are, that things are moving, but at the same time I think as we look forward to what we’re going to be doing to remediate this, I think we also need to look back and see what happened at Fairmont Brine that we can, hopefully, prevent from happening in the future.”
Morris said she doesn’t think the incident affects her now but worries about her neighbors who live closer to the site.
“I’m glad they’re finally doing something,” she said. “Even though it may be a little late.”
A June 2024 EPA report found high levels of radiation still present on the site. The agency said the radiation is most dangerous when it’s ingested or inhaled.
The agency urged the public to stay away from the facility and to contact a healthcare professional if they think they have been exposed to radiation.
