For years, evidence suggested that the state of Pennsylvania was not adequately tracking the growing volume of waste created by the fracking industry.
Fracking waste can be highly toxic, containing radioactive elements, heavy metals and carcinogenic chemicals. Loose government accounting of the waste opens the door to more leaks, spills and illegal dumping.
But proving exactly what was being missed was a daunting task: Thousands of state records that held the answers were catalogued in different databases and formats. Some of the records were not publicly available. And information from nearby states—a possible origin and destination for the waste—was even sparser.
A six-month Inside Climate News investigation revealed errors and discrepancies in the records that showed the state’s oversight—and its accounting of waste—was deeply flawed. We found a 1.4 million-ton difference between the amount of waste oil and gas operators said was sent to landfills in Pennsylvania and what landfills said they received between 2017 and 2024.
Unraveling the truth required months of meticulous research, data analysis, field reporting, interviews and fact-checking. We obtained landfills’ records from the state via a Right to Know request and then combed through thousands of pages of forms, looking for clues about how much waste was coming in and from where. This was slow, painstaking work, but it was also necessary to compare with our analysis of numbers from a state database in which oil and gas operators report how much waste they produce each month.
Our series of eight stories published over the course of 2025 revealed new information and analysis about the impact of fracking waste on water, workers and wildlife. Stories from the series were republished by news outlets across the state including the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Philadelphia Inquirer and Spotlight PA.
Since the series was published, advocates and residents have held town halls and rallies to share their experiences and fears about fracking waste near their homes and to demand solutions. After our revelations were published, U.S. Rep. Summer Lee toured a landfill located in the small community of Yukon in Westmoreland County that had accepted waste. Lee pushed the federal Environmental Protection Agency for more testing, which began in the spring of 2026. Grove City, a town 60 miles north of Pittsburgh, used our reporting in its campaign to successfully block a plan to reopen a landfill that would have taken fracking waste. The landfill’s permit was ultimately denied in August 2025 by the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court.
Just last month, residents, environmental advocates and scientists held a rally in Pittsburgh to demand that the state government do more to protect Pennsylvanians from the risks of radioactive waste in landfills.
The grassroots environmental group Mountain Watershed Association praised Inside Climate News’ reporting on the landfill in Yukon as “deeply moving.” After decades of struggle to bring attention and change, the group said our coverage of the landfill had “reinvigorated public interest” in the problems there.
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