The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection will investigate whether there are radioactive materials in Ten Mile Creek, a major tributary of the Monongahela River in Greene and Washington counties.
The Monongahela is a primary source of drinking water in the region, but John Poister, a DEP spokesman, said it is too early to tell whether there are any public health concerns.
“At this point, we don’t think there is an immediate threat to the health and safety of the people in that vicinity,” he said.
Ten Mile Creek is in the heart of Southwestern Pennsylvania’s shale gas fields, an area that is also plagued with waste from legacy coal mining.
The DEP plans to begin testing the creek in late June. The investigation comes more than a year after the department did initial tests that showed levels of radioactivity above what is normally seen in Pennsylvania, Poister said.
Read more of this report at the website of our partner PublicSource.
