"Small towns in the Permian Basin have become a petri dish for the perils of living amid the nation’s largest oil fields."
"A recently published scientific paper ties oil and gas operations in the Permian Basin to radioactive airborne plumes near the small New Mexico town of Loving. An associated study outlines how high levels of ozone pollution in the same area are also the byproduct of oil and gas production in the nation’s most productive oilfields.
Both scientific studies are based on data collected at an air monitoring station that operated in Loving between May 2023 and May 2024. That work was funded by a grant from HEI Energy. The peer-reviewed radiation study was published this month in Elementa, an imprint of the University of California Press.
Among various forms of air pollution, the monitoring station measured radon and the particles that form from its decay. Data in the study showed airborne radiation levels in Loving rising up to five times normal background levels, depending on wind direction.
Since all readings were taken in one spot, the report’s authors said they could not tie the radiation to a single source. But they pointed to the area’s intense oil and gas development, which they said highlights the need for follow-up studies."
