Tribal officials claim oil industry is dumping radioactive filters in fields

NEW TOWN, N.D. — Officials on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in western North Dakota say potentially radioactive filters used by the oil industry are being illegally dumped in fields and garbage containers and along roads.

They say the filters that look like small nets might attract children and endanger their health.

The filters are used to screen fluids at oil wells. Three Affiliated Tribes environmental official Edmund Baker tells The Bismarck Tribune that they’re being found particularly in the Mandaree area.