Yes, their water has natural gas in it. Enough to sustain a flame. Now, I don't know about the rest of y'all, but the first thought I had was that if you were to put that water into a squirtgun, would the ATF want to regulate it as a flamethrower?Dimock, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Bill Ely walked into his chicken coop with an empty five-gallon water jug.
The jug, punched with several finger-sized holes near the top to keep it from overflowing, was capped with a white plastic pipe. Using a garden hose fed from his water well, he filled the jug.
Leaning over the contraption, he flicked his yellow lighter above the pipe, and a blue flame appeared.
It's tough to draw any conclusions from the story. In a previous life, I did a fair amount of water quality on both local groundwater and water in other locations. Even in our town, which has historically had very low levels of iron and other dissolved solids, measurements vary from month to month and even from week to week. Trace amounts of contaminants from businesses long shuttered still remain in the water table, enough to trigger warning flags and require further testing. Is it possible that this "fracking" process has introduced higher levels of natural gas into the drinking water? Certainly.
I do have to admit one thing, though: I hope there are video cameras around to catch the first person who tosses a cigarette into a toilet in this neighborhood...
That is all.
Link-of-the-weird sent by PISSED, who has decided to take a momentary break from stories that make the vein in my forehead stick out...
12 comments:
The hydrofracturing ("fracking") debate is huge in my area; we're on some of the highest-yielding formations of the Marcellus shale.
Mineral rights leases can destroy real estate sales, neighbor v. neighbor feuds begin, etc. It's really pretty ugly. As one drives around, there are "no frack" signs here and there, outnumbering the "drill baby drill" by a fair margin.
The biggest point of contention that I've been able to see about fracking is the refusal of the drilling companies to release the chemicals that are actually in the fracking fluid. No MSDS, no nothing. "Proprietary information", and all, you see.
All the local wastewater treatment plants have refused/been directed not to accept any drilling wastewater, so that will end up being trucked to who-knows-where in order to be processed.
I'm in favor of drilling - we need the energy - but there needs to be some level of transparency. And no, there shouldn't be a law: it should happen just as it is. "You won't tell us what's in your fluids? Fine, truck them to someone who doesn't care, but you aren't bringing them here." When it starts affecting the bottom line enough...
I was pretty much doing fine reading the post.
When I hit the "toilet" remark, I lost it.
Skul
Does the AFT regulate flamethrowers? Wikipedia suggests not in their article (not that a Wiki article is authoritative esp since they don't bother citing their sources for "In the United States, private ownership of a flamethrower is not restricted by federal law..."
Um... That could give a whole new meaning to hiccups if you smoked too :-) One wonders if you'd blow smoke/flames out your nose???
One of the towns North of Denver, Colorado, has a similar situation. Water running out of a kitchen tap releases enough gas to generate puffs of flame when a lighter is held near. Since the media hysteria faded months ago, there's been no update I've seen. The region is known for fairly shallow oil wells.
Ian: as far as I know, that's correct. Flamethrowers are used often in agricultural and industrial settings, which is probably why the ATF is loath to go near them.
They are regulated on the state level in many states, though.
Thanks. Figured on states regulating, as the wiki article linked to CA law and I think I have seen NJ's laws when looking up firearm laws
Got the same thing here in Arkansas.
Nasty stuff, and the gas companies here don't seem to have any interest in doing anything to stop it.
We have had 4 Natural Gas explosions in the Cleveland area over the last 18 months, killing some people and destroying many homes surrounding the explosion site. Today I see that a neighborhood south of San Francisco just had the same thing happen. Wonder which Czar in the Anointed One's Gooberment took some Campaign funds and is allowing Safety Inspections to "Non-Occur" while they are "Studying the Issue"?
Of course, this must be Bush's Fault.
lucky bastards,
Has anyone explained to them that they could simply run their water though a small agitator and then a salt bath followed by a carbon filter.
Just imagine .... syphon off the NG and you could power your house ..... and probably have some left over.
OH BTW ... one small issue with their house "smelling like gas"
NG has no smell... when you turn on your stove and smell the rotten egg.... yeah that is added so that you know your house is full of gas.
I am betting that they have hit someone gas line.
ZerCool you must not be to far from me.
I agree we need the energy, but I'd really like to know a bit more about some of those proprietary bits of data they refuse to clarify on before I agreed to that around me....
The aquifer that underlies the area where I grew up has a large natural gas/methane content in the water.
There's a story in my family of the dairy inspector who burned off his eyebrows taking a water sample at my uncle's milkhouse tap.
Our own hardwater faucet could be lit like a torch when it hadn't been opened for a while. The gas would build up in a pocket at the valve. You ran a glass of water and waited for the gas to bubble out before you drank it.
The town where I attended high school had the exploding toilet incident about 20 years ago IIRC. The victim was smoking in his bathroom and tossed his cigarette in as he flushed. The next thing he knew he was waking up in the yard outside his trailer as the fire department rolled up. (yes, blew him out through the wall).
@Anon 2:12 pm, All you'd need is a gas trap tank to allow the gas to rise to the top of the tank (still under pressure in water system) and pipe it off. Mom made Dad install one after she caught us lighting the hardwater faucet torch. You're right about the odor, our well water gas has little distinguishable odor as there is no mercaptan added to it yet.
If the frac'ing is causing gas to get in the groundwater across property lines then the drilling company should be liable for remedying the problem.
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