CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Department of Environmental Protection told legislators Monday that results of a mandated radioactivity study of drilling waste accepted at landfills indicates radiation levels present are not harmful to humans.

A bill passed last Legislative Session, allowing drilling mud — which can be more radioactive than topsoil because it comes from deep in the Marcellus shale — to be accepted at seven landfills in the northwest region of West Virginia and the Northern Panhandle.

Mike Dorsey, director of emergency response and homeland security for the Department of Environmental Protection, presented these test results to the Joint Judiciary Committee.

Dorsey said testing has occurred at 15 different drilling and landfill sites, and the highest readings measured were .015 “rem” per hour. Rem is the measurement of ionizing radiation as it is absorbed into tissue. According to OSHA guidelines, an employee can be exposed up to 5 rem per year.

Dorsey said the levels tested in West Virginia were so low that an employee could “spend eight hours a day lying in the stuff and still fall under the 5 rem per year of exposure guidelines…