Alberta’s energy regulator is moving to more tightly control the handling and disposal of low-level radioactive oilfield waste that could harm people who may be exposed to it over many years.

The waste, called naturally occurring radioactive material or NORM, doesn’t present an immediate health risk to oilfield workers or the public, says the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (EUB).

But NORM is classified as a hazardous radioactive waste above a certain level of radio- activity. Long-term exposure to radiation from NORM dust, scale and sludge could increase the risk of cancer and other health problems, the EUB says.

“There is NORM out there. And some companies have found it and are managing it,” said Don Burke, chair of an EUB technical committee that includes industry and government experts.

However, there are information gaps about the material, Burke said in an interview. “We realize that we have no hard numbers on how much NORM is out there and where exactly it is.”

The EUB committee has been reviewing the issue of NORM waste disposal for about four years.

It has just finished a report that includes recommendations for managing NORM-contaminated waste in the upstream oil and gas industry – in equipment that ranges from small valves and fittings to drilling pipe and large gas plant processing vessels.

The report should be ready within a month for public release and consultation with stakeholders, Burke said.

It will be the foundation for new EUB requirements – and possibly new regulations – on how NORM should be safely managed by oil and gas producers, he said.

NORM is a naturally occurring substance, present at trace levels even in the human body.

Radium is found in varying concentrations in most oil and gas fields, and radon gas is present in most natural gas deposits.

During oil and gas production, NORM that’s naturally present in geological formations is brought to the surface in wastewater produced along with the oil and gas.

The resulting scale, sludge and dust that form in equipment can be contaminated with radium. In gas processing, radon gas brought to the surface can decay and form thin, radioactive lead films inside equipment.

Propane and liquid petroleum gas production tend to concentrate radon, increasing the potential NORM hazard.

Pipelines, railway cars and truck tanks may also be contaminated with NORM, according to a fact sheet from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

The EUB’s Guide 58 requirements for managing oilfield waste tells companies to follow Canada-wide guidelines, issued by Health Canada in 2000, for handling and disposing of NORM. But those guidelines don’t set out specific criteria for how NORM should be stored, handled and disposed of in Alberta, said Tab Cuthill, president of Calgary-based Normcan Control Inc., which is represented on the EUB’s committee.

“People don’t know what they’re supposed to do, really,” he said. “You can look at those guidelines, but it really doesn’t give you any formal mandate in terms of handling your (NORM) waste out there.”

Normcan operates Canada’s only licensed facility, east of Calgary, that’s equipped to completely remove radioactive NORM contamination from all types of oilfield equipment. The wastes are placed in sealed canisters and disposed of into oil and gas wells that are capped and properly abandoned.

Atomic Solutions Canada Inc. of Red Deer also offers NORM-management services to companies, including risk assessments, training seminars, onsite decontamination services and transportation of waste to an approved disposal facility.

Scott Hahn, president of Atomic Solutions, said regulations that require companies to properly monitor, handle and dispose of NORM waste are long overdue. Atomic Solutions says its studies have found NORM wastes “are prevalent throughout the Western Canadian oil and gas industry.”

Some companies are not taking care with the material and are putting workers at potential risk, Hahn said.

Some NORM waste generated in Alberta is transported out of province and disposed of in deep underground salt caverns in Saskatchewan. But many oil and gas firms are simply storing NORM waste onsite at their facilities while awaiting a less expensive disposal option in Alberta, such as a specially engineered landfill.

Burying NORM waste in a landfill is one of four disposal options recommended in the EUB technical committee’s report, Burke noted.

Alberta Environment would set the standards for designing such a landfill so the radioactive material didn’t escape into the environment, including into groundwater or surface water, he added.

Other recommended disposal methods are placing NORM waste into deep salt caverns such as those used in Saskatchewan, placing it in sealed canisters in properly abandoned wells, and pumping it into deep underground formations through injection wells that already handle other types of oilfield wastes.

Last year, participants at a conference on radiation health hazards in the oil and gas industry, held in Edson about 200 kilometres east of Edmonton, called for a comprehensive health study of oilfield and gas plant workers and radioactive emissions.

Their call went unheeded. However, NORM is coming under increasing scrutiny in the U.S. from both regulators and the courts. Texas, Oklahoma and other states have detailed regulations for the handling, cleaning and disposal of NORM- contaminated material.

In 2001, a jury in Louisiana decided that ExxonMobil Corp. had contaminated a family’s land with radioactive dust deposited over decades from drilling pipe-cleaning operations.

The jury awarded the family $56 million to restore their property, $145,000 in general damages and $1 billion in punitive damages. ExxonMobil has appealed the verdict.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers says it’s not aware of any legal cases over NORM in Canada, or of any workers’ compensation claims related to NORM.

Web watch:
www.normcan.com
www.atomicsolutionscanada.com