Oil behemoths BP and Chevron dumped toxic waste - including some radioactive material - from their drilling operations into coastal waters, claims Louisiana parish Plaquemines in a lawsuit removed to federal court Thursday.

Plaquemines Parish alleges the companies released oil field waste into ocean water “without limitation,” violating the Louisiana State and Local Coastal Resources Management Act of 1978. The law requires companies to clear, revegetate, detoxify or restore polluted areas, which the companies did not do, the lawsuit claims.

The pollution, along with the companies’ lack of adequate maintenance of their oilfields, has resulted in serious coastal erosion and contaminated groundwater, according to the lawsuit.

“I think the oil companies have an obligation to self-report, I think the oil companies are to blame and I think the oil companies took advantage of the state,” John Carmouche, a lead attorney for Plaquemines, told The Advocate in November when the suit first came out in state court.

Plaquemines and the Jefferson Parish filed nearly 30 lawsuits in November aimed at dozens of energy companies and their contractors based on claims of destruction and pollution of coastal space.

The suit against BP and Chevron alleges the companies should have recognized that the drilling waste, or “brine,” contained “unacceptable and inherently dangerous” amounts of the radioactive materials Radium 226 and Radium 228.

Though minor amounts of Radium 226 were once used in health items like toothpaste, they were eventually discarded in everyday uses when it was discovered the perceived health benefits were not at all true, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Exposure to radium over a long-term period increases one’s chances of developing diseases such as lymphoma, bone cancer, leukemia and aplastic anemia, the Environmental Protection Agency reports.

Containing gamma radiation, radium is harmful if ingested or inhaled. The Environmental Protection Agency says about 20 percent of ingested radium does not leave the body, entering the bloodstream and often accumulating in bones.

FULL STORY: http://rt.com/usa/bp-chevron-radioactive-waste-louisiana-584/