# MHF Services — Hazardous Materials Safety Interpretation

- **operation:** document
- **citation:** 13-0157
- **title:** MHF Services — Hazardous Materials Safety Interpretation
- **source type:** guidance
- **agency:** Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration
- **status:** guidance
- **official:** true
- **published on:** 2013-12-19
- **effective on:** Not available
- **summary:** 13-0157 response to MHF Services concerning 173.401.
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- **source url:** https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/sites/phmsa.dot.gov/files/legacy/interpretations/Interpretation%20Files/2013/130157.pdf
**body:**

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U.S. Department
of Transportation
Pipeline and Hazardous
Materials Safety
Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, D.C. 20590
DEC J 9 2013
Mr. William Dawson
MHF Services
4500 Brooktree Road, Suite 200
Wexford, PA 15090-9289
Ref. No. 13-0157
Dear Mr. Dawson:
This responds to your July 25, 2013 letter regarding the applicability of the Hazardous
Materials Regulations (HMR; 49 CFR Parts 171-180) to the transportation of naturally-
occurring radioactive material (NORM). In your letter, you indicate that drilling and
extraction processes by the oil and gas exploration and development industry may generate
NORM (and technically enhanced NORM). Specifically, you ask if the exception for
natural material and ores containing NORM in§ 173.401(b)(4) applies to the waste
material generated in this industrial process that contains Radium-226 and -228 in the form
of a solidified sludge from a fracking water collection pit; or a filter cake from treatment
and recycling of fracking water.
The answer is no. The exception does not apply to the NORM-containing waste material
generated from the industrial process you describe in your letter. Moreover, the waste
material you describe is no longer considered "natural material" because of the industrial
processing. The term "natural material" in § 173.401 (b)( 4) means material existing in a
form as it would otherwise in nature, not in a form manipulated by human application. The
fracking water is not a natural material nor is the radionuclide-containing solidified sludge
from the fracking water collection pit or the radionuclide-containing filter cake from
treatment and recycling of the fracking water. Thus, the exception in § 173.401 (b)( 4) does
not apply and the waste material is subject to the HMR if the activity concentration of the
radionuclides in the waste material and the total activity in the consignment exceed the
values specified in§ 173.436 or values derived according to the instructions in§ 173.433
of the HMR. See the definition of radioactive material in § 173.403.
I hope this information is helpful. If you have further questions, please contact this office.
sv;~/L-
b {\. Charles rfetF 0 v
Director,
Standards and Rulemaking Division

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MHFe
4500 Brooktree Road, Suite 200, Wexford, PA 15090-9289
724.772.9800 (T) ~- 724.772.9850 (F) ll<""www.mhfservices.com
July 251 2013
Mr. Charles E. Betts
Director1 Standards and Rulemaking Division
U.S. DOT/PHMSA (PHH-10)
1200 New Jersey Avenue1 SE East Building1 2nd Floor
Washington, DC 20590
Mr. Betts:
I am requesting your clarification in regards to the shipment of waste materials generated in
the Oil & Gas exploration and development industry. Naturally occurring radiological materials
(NORM) and technically enhanced NORM (TENORM) can be generated from the drilling and
extraction process with the principal radiological components Radium-226 and Radium-228.
The materials to be transported are typically wastes generated as 1) solidified sludge that has
settled in fracking water collection pits, or 2) filter cake from the treatment or recycling of
fracking waters.
Does the 10-times exemption in 49 CFR 173·401(b)(4) apply to this material?
49 CFR 173·401(b)(4): This subpart does not apply to: (4) "Natural material and ores containing
naturally occurring radionuclides which are not intended to be processed for use of these
radionuclides, provided the activity concentration of the material does not exceed 1.0 times the
values specified in 1.73-4]6.11
Thank you.
Sincerely/
MHF Services
William Dawson
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