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After choosing a benchmark established by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that wasn’t meant to assess risk to human health from radioactivity in landfill leachate, the agency came to bold conclusions. https://scoop.publicherald.org/p/state-investigation-finds-all-pennsylvania?r=b7r7s&triedRedirect=true

In this case, DEP discretion manufactured what it considered safe, not necessarily establishing, by way of public input or congressional approval, regulations that would best apply for safe discharges of radium to public waterways..when EPA assessed the risk of regulated radioactive industrial discharges to public waters, it used a number 200 hundred times lower than DEP’s 600 pCi/L for what’s considered a safe radioactive benchmark for human health.

DEP’s report stated that because landfill leachate is subject to further treatment, like a sewage facility, before discharge, DEP “can conclude that there is currently no concern” with combined radium in treated discharges to groundwater or surface waters.

This places DEP at odds with a foremost expert on this issue.

In 2019, Public Herald spoke with Duke geochemist Dr. Avner Vengosh who told our team that a sewage authority is “not capable of treating radioactive material in fracking waste,” and that in leachate from fracking waste he would expect “salts, metals, and radioactive elements” none of which would be “retained or removed through conventional wastewater treatment plants.”

State Investigation Finds All Pennsylvania Landfills Are Discharging Radioactive Leachate, Then Tries to Convince the Public There’s No Risk Pennsylvania Regulators Chose A Number 200 Times Greater Than EPA's

Over a million gallons of the radioactive wastewater, once held at Eureka Resources in Williamsport Pa. for treatment, has now been trucked to Kleese Disposal in Ohio — full story: https://open.substack.com/pub/natocracy/p/ohio-is-left-holding-pennsylvanias?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

Pennsylvania DEP has provided Public Herald with a limited update on Eureka Resources ongoing waste removal at its three sites — two in Williamsport and one in Bradford County — but failed to answer Public Herald’s core questions about radioactive testing.

DEP shared that its Waste Management Program issued Notices of Violation on January 8, 2026 for all three Eureka facilities, citing noncompliance with prior enforcement actions and warning of escalated enforcement if the waste is not removed by the end of January. Links to those DEP records are included at the end of this article.

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Ohio Is Left Holding Pennsylvania’s Radioactive Waste Bags After Facilities Contaminated Waterways “This is a permanent reactor near your house..."

DEP has sent the following update about Eureka Resources spill into the West Fork of the Susquehanna to Public Herald, which included 8 documents...Public Herald investigations have shown that while the DEP may test or monitor leachate coming out of facilities handling TENORM and affected groundwater, the type of testing used at landfills or sewage plants to monitor for ‘hot’ loads of waste isn’t capable of producing accurate measurements for radium unless it’s measuring with gamma spectroscopy in a minimum 21 day window. In this case, trying to determine the dangerous levels of radium-226 in an instant wouldn’t be possible.

DEP Releases Update on Eureka Resources — Fails To Use The "Right Test" For Radiation DEP has sent the following update about Eureka Resources spill into the West Fork of the Susquehanna to Public Herald, which included 8 documents:

Congratulations Public Herald co-founder Melissa Troutman on Two Emmy Nominations! Watch the new film 'Lake Erie, Our Kin' (Part 1 & 2) covering on

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