Radioactive disaster on Louisiana bayou?

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DATELINE: THE SOUTH - News and trends
SPECIAL REPORT - Radioactive disaster unfolding on Louisiana bayou?
INSTITUTE NEWS - Spotlight shines on Follow NC Money project
INSTITUTE INDEX - Fresh scrutiny for health care fraudster

DATELINE: THE SOUTH - News and trends

UT-AUSTIN APPOINTS GAS INDUSTRY INSIDER TO LEAD PROBE INTO FRACKING STUDY CONFLICTS: After coming under fire for releasing what it touted as an independent study of fracking's environmental risks that was in fact led by a director of a fracking company, the school appoints a panel to investigate -- and it's chaired by a former director of a gas giant whose fracking operations have been blamed for contaminating groundwater. (8/14/2012)

UAW V. NISSAN IN MISSISSIPPI: OPERATION DIXIE REVISED? When the CIO launched a campaign to organize Southern workers in 1946, the region's elite fought back by exploiting fears about race and communism -- and fear remains the biggest obstacle to organizing today, as the UAW's campaign to unionize Nissan's Canton, Miss. plant shows. (8/13/2012)

GULF FISHERMEN FACE HARD DECISIONS OVER BP SETTLEMENT: With the Oct. 1 deadline to opt out of the BP settlement fast approaching, Gulf fishermen are confronted with the tough choice of accepting what many say is an inadequate settlement payout or fighting for more with the risk of getting nothing at all. (8/17/2012)

HOW POLITICIANS AND THE PRESS OVERSTATED MILITARY BUDGET CUTS BY $100 BILLION: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.), House Aerospace Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Pete Olson (R-Texas), Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney are among those citing an inflated figure for military budget cuts slated to take effect next year. (8/15/2012)

VOICES: WHY EXPANDING MEDICAID OUGHT TO BE A NO-BRAINER: Morally, leaving our poorest fellow citizens uninsured while we move forward with tax credits to help make coverage more affordable for middle-class families is unthinkable for most of us -- but expansion also makes sense financially. (8/15/2012)

SPECIAL REPORT - Environmental disaster unfolding on Louisiana bayou highlights radioactive hazards of oil and gas drilling

By Sue Sturgis

Along with a massive sinkhole, anger is growing in Assumption Parish, La. as details emerge that state and corporate officials knew for over a year about the potential for structural failure at a salt mine used to store oil and gas drilling waste but failed to alert local residents.

Adding to the alarm is the fact that Texas Brine, the Houston-based company that owns the mine, received a permit from the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources in 1995 to dispose of naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) from oil and gas exploration in the cavern, part of the Napoleonville Salt Dome. A sinkhole appeared at the site earlier this month, leading to an evacuation order for residents of 150 nearby homes, who for months had been reporting mysterious gas bubbles in the swamp and tremors in the area around Bayou Corne. The slurry hole is now over 370 feet wide and over 420 feet deep.

The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality released results from the first set of NORM tests last week, reporting that "there were no detectable levels" on the sinkhole's surface. Those tests used handheld radioactive monitoring devices. DEQ scientists also took water and soil samples that have been sent to a lab for more detailed analysis; those results are expected this week.

Officials in Assumption Parish, which is located about 70 miles west of New Orleans, say they learned about the NORM disposal at the site through news reports. Sheriff Mike Waguespack told The Advocate newspaper that he was disturbed because he had assigned deputies to work around the sinkhole without knowing about the radioactive risk.

Texas Brine is the largest independent brine producer in the United States, supplying over 30 percent of the brine needed by the chloralkali industry, which uses it to produce chlorine and other chemical products. The company also offers underground storage for natural gas and other petroleum products in the massive salt caverns created by the mining process. Its storage customers include Houston-based Kinder Morgan, an oil and gas pipeline operator that's also one of the largest oil producers in Texas, and CenterPoint Energy, a natural gas utility also based in Houston.

NORM is naturally present in geologic formations that contain oil and gas deposits and is released through drilling activities. Because the extraction process concentrates the radionuclides, they are also referred to as "technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive material," or TENORM. These materials include uranium, thorium, radium and their decay products.

Drilling for both oil and natural gas create NORM/TENORM disposal issues. Last year, a New York Times investigation found that wastewater produced by fracking for natural gas was tainted with higher levels of radioactive materials than previously known and was being hauled to sewage plants unable to treat it properly, resulting in releases to rivers and risks to the environment and human health.

The average radiation levels of soils across the United States range from a low of 0.2 picocuries per gram to 4.2 pCi/g, with Gulf Coast soils among those more likely to contain radioactive material. In comparison, produced water from oil and gas production can range from a low of 0.1 pCi/g to 9,000 pCi/g, according to the EPA.

That upper level greatly exceeds even the highest the levels of radiation in ash from coal-fired power plants, which ranges from 1.6 pCi/g to 9.7 pCi/g. The potentially dangerous radioactivity levels of coal ash got attention in the wake of the 2008 coal ash spill at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston plant in eastern Tennessee.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports that while the radioactivity levels in produced waters from oil and gas drilling are generally low, the volumes are large:

The ratio of produced water to oil is approximately 10 barrels of produced water per barrel of oil. According to the American Petroleum Institute (API), more than 18 billion barrels of waste fluids from oil and gas production are generated annually in the United States.

Produced waters contain levels of radium and its decay products that are concentrated, but the concentrations vary from site to site. In general, produced waters are re-injected into deep wells or are discharged into non-potable coastal waters.

Disposal of this waste into salt caverns is classified as a type of deep well injection.

The EPA exempts wastes produced during exploration, development and production of oil and natural gas from regulation as hazardous waste under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. It leaves oversight up to the states.

In 1992, Louisiana became the first state to develop and implement a NORM regulatory program. It requires operators who handle materials with significant NORM concentrations to obtain a general license from the state, and it requires NORM to be disposed of at licensed NORM disposal facilities.

Texas Brine is currently drilling a relief well to investigate the structural problems at the cavern. Company officials say it could take as long as 40 days to get answers.

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INSTITUTE NEWS - Spotlight shines on Follow NC Money project

The Institute for Southern Studies, publisher of Facing South, launched FollowNCMoney.org last month to track the dramatic rise of money flowing from independent groups into North Carolina politics.

It's the first searchable database of election-year spending by independent groups in North Carolina races. It gathers all reports on TV ads, mailers and other independent expenditures and puts them in an easy-to-use database where they can be searched and sorted.

The project has been getting praise from the state press corps. The Greensboro News & Record said the site "absolutely merits following." The project also got coverage in Greensboro's Yes! Weekly and Asheville's Mountain Xpress.

And Institute for Southern Studies Executive Director Chris Kromm made an appearance to talk about the project in depth on "Capital Tonight," a public affairs show on News 14 Carolina. You can watch that interview here.

The project is still in its beta stage as we address gaps and inconsistencies in the data -- many the result of groups improperly filling out reports. We invite readers to help us collect information about TV and radio ads, mailers and groups that need to be covered by sending us a tip.

(Visit FollowNCMoney.org here. To donate to the project, click here.)

INSTITUTE INDEX - Fresh scrutiny for well-connected health care fraudster

Date on which HCA, the Nashville, Tenn.-based health care corporation, disclosed that the Department of Justice was investigating it for performing medically unnecessary heart procedures: 8/6/2012

Number of HCA hospitals targeted in the probe, most of them in Florida: 10

Number of for-profit hospitals that HCA controls nationwide: 163

Percent of all inpatient care delivered in the U.S. today provided by HCA facilities: 4 to 5

Year in which the family of former U.S. Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), also a physician, founded the company: 1968

Year in which HCA merged with Columbia Healthcare Corp., a hospital group led by Rick Scott, now Florida's Republican governor: 1994

Year in which Scott, then serving as the merged company's chair and CEO, was pressured by the company's board to resign amid controversy over Medicare billing practices: 1997

Year in which HCA settled a fraud case with the U.S. government for systematically overcharging Medicare and other federal health care programs: 2003

Amount of that settlement: $1.7 billion

Rank of that settlement among the largest health care fraud cases in U.S. history: 1

Number of felonies to which the HCA corporation pleaded guilty in that case: 14

In a separate settlement with the government, amount HCA agreed to pay to resolve allegations that one of its hospitals in Georgia paid illegal kickbacks for the referral of diabetes patients: $1.5 million

In yet another settlement, amount HCA agreed to pay state Medicaid programs for losses related to its fraudulent billings: $17.5 million

Year in which three private equity firms -- including Bain Capital, co-founded by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney -- bought HCA: 2006

Year in which HCA introduced a new system of seeking payment for emergency care, which resulted in its patients appearing much sicker and its Medicare reimbursements surging -- and leading to warnings from experts that the company was putting itself at risk of the program demanding money back: 2008

Year in which the current acting head of Medicare, Marilyn Tavenner, left her job as an HCA executive: 2005

Of the 15 worst for-profit hospitals nationwide for bedsores, an indicator of inadequate staffing levels, number owned by HCA: 8

Amount that HCA's political action committee has contributed to candidates so far during the 2012 election cycle: $188,350

Percent that has gone to Republicans: 66

Amount HCA's PAC has contributed so far to the Romney campaign: $5,000

To the Obama campaign: $0