Whistleblower Says Radioactive Fracking Waste Site Melted His Jaw. Now There's an Elementary School There. (Texas) [View all]

Sure, Lee Oldham told me, he had spread radioactive fracking waste on Texas farmland. But in his defense, he never in a million years thought anyone would put a school there.

We were standing in the frigid wind on a field in Johnson County. It was January, and 52-year-old Oldham wore a heavy flannel sweatshirt pulled tight over his belly.

In the early 2010s, when the region was ground zero for the biggest fossil fuel production boom in human history, Oldham worked in waste disposal for a company that helped get rid of the millions of pounds of solid waste that came out of tens of thousands of natural gas wells about two miles underground.

That work, Oldham believes, exposed him to a witches’ brew of chemicals that, even now, likely lurked inside the fabric of his cells. His doctors believe the exposure melted the bones in his jaw and neck, he said.

He also believes it made him an accessory to what he now views as an enormous crime — albeit one that was technically legal.

According to the nonprofit FracTracker — which shares maps, data, and analysis on the oil and gas industry — there were at least 21,000 oil and gas wells in the Dallas–Fort Worth area. Most of them sit in and around residential neighborhoods.

https://thebarbedwire.com/2026/02/11/a-whistleblower-says-radioactive-fracking-waste-melted-his-jaw/