DeSmog
Feb 18, 2021 @ 13:09
On the evening of February 1, a fire erupted at a West Virginia facility that processes radioactive oilfield waste generated from nearby fracking operations, injuring two workers. A video of the fire captured by local news station WTRF shows a raging nighttime inferno billowing out of the collapsed building.
Initial news reports described the facility located in Dallas Pike, 50 miles southwest of Pittsburgh as a truck stop cleaning station. However, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) confirmed to DeSmog that the facility, which the agency says is owned and operated by Ohio-based company Petta Enterprises, does a lot more than clean trucks: It processes oil and gas waste. And the agency confirmed that it was the volatile nature of this waste transported inside trucks arriving at the site that helped cause the blaze.
as a result of the February 1 fire, Vargo said
: “Not necessarily, because there was no release to the atmosphere, because it was an explosion.” He added, “we did check the area and there was no sign of radioactivity or any other contaminants.”
West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) spokesperson Allison Adler said, “Communication was received from the WVDEP that Bob Applegate of the Petta facility did a walk around of the facility with a radiation survey meter and noted that the area around the building did not receive any readings higher then background levels of radiation.” She said DHHR staff have not been onsite at the facility since the incident.