The Cecil waste yard is part of a facility that handles radioactive oil and gas waste.( Credit: Justin Nobel)
Research to date has turned up no links between Ewing sarcoma and exposure to radiation. Still, the ways in which the oil and gas industry in this area has dealt with its most dangerous waste, combined with the other proven harms of radiation, have raised alarm bells for the Blanock family.
Weavertown Transport ceased operations at the Cecil facility in 2019, and for several years it sat empty. Then in 2022, a locally‐based company named 5D Field Services applied for a permit to take over the property. In May 2025, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection( DEP) gave 5D a permit to temporarily store, handle, and process radioactive oil and gas waste at the facility, operations conducted in a series of buildings and pads located on a hill above the storage yard. The permit allows 5D Field to accept 1,500 tons of waste a day.“ The benefits of the project to the public clearly outweigh the known and potential environmental harms,” the DEP stated.
During an October 14, 2025, inspection of the site, the DEP’ s Bureau of Waste Management found that operations were being conducted“ as approved,” with no violations. That same week, I was taking a trip through the region with environmental justice organizer Jill Hunkler, the director of Ohio Valley Allies. On a tip from Lois Bjornson, a Washington County organizer