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Heh. Now you can boil water at the tap!
1 replies
Heh. Now you can boil water at the tap!
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If you drink enough of this water will you just be walking down the street and spontaneously combust?
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The WaterUnderAttack.com link is actually linked to this post, FYI.
Hmm... don't combine this water with Mexican food, the results can be hazardous to your health...
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A little gasoline for breakfast never hurt anyone. Bunch of whiner babies.
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@chrialg6 is a happy effing cupcake: You got it all wrong. It's \"I LOVE the smell of Napalm in the morning!\"
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wow... Kitchen accidents happen. I pity the poor fool that unknowingly throws a burning rag into the sink for safety and sets the whole place on fire.
@dohtem: Seen worse. One guy got disillusioned with the insurance company and opened all the gas taps in his trailer. He was on propane and that 100 gallon tank was full at the time. So, with the stove gas valves opened, he set the oven timer to ignite the burners in 6 hours, then left.
After 6 hours about 1/2 the tank was bled into the trailer when the oven tried to light the burners. You can guess the results, but I'll give them anyway.
The resulting blast was felt/heard over 30 miles away, debris was scattered over a 6 block radius and nothing of the structure was left standing no taller than a fire hydrant.
It was -20F at the time so the tank chilled and it didn't have the pressure to put more volume into the trailer.
Gee, no more gas stations! Just fill up with the garden hose!!
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That's probably what they should do, since the gas problem is in their homes I would start my own natural gas company, after all, if all I had to do was seperate the water from the gas, and sell the gas, I would be in business!
If they rebuke I could say \"Well you tested my water and told me it was fine! If you are correct then my \"water\" shouldn't be selling then should it?\"
You could break down the whole arguement right back on them and they would have no way to fight back, and you would profit!
Can we get some details on what in going on here? Is this guy connected to a municipal water supply or is it a well he dug himself?
@jjeefff:
That's a residential well. The drillers are using fracture drilling, which as its name implies, fractures the rock with explosions to release the gas. In doing so, the gas mixes with the underground water and you get methane mixed with your drinking water.
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@zentec: Fracture drilling, or fracing, involves pumping a high pressure solution into a drilled wellbore and fracturing the rock surrounding the wellbore. No explosives are involved.
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@silentluciditi: I work for a company that (among other things) makes frac technology, and it is good technology, but I think that anyone using the technology without making damn sure they aren't causing problems like this deserves to be publicly and loudly spanked.
@speedwell, avatar of snark: I don't think they are knocking frac technology. Just the misjudging of the tech as to where to use it. In this case, the drillers should have taken into account the proximity of the residents to the wells they were planning to fractionate. In this case, they planned poorly or misjudged the final results of the frac process. So, now they got channels in the bedrock leaking natural gas into the water table, making a mess of things.
I agree the drilling company should be responsible for this and making the effort to seal the channels up before it gets any worse, like a house blowing up.
Sorry, that is one of the COOLEST things I have ever seen!!! Though if it happened to me without warning, I think I might need a change of pants!
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@pmcpa4: Natural gas mixes pretty much undetectably into water. Other than a chemical test kit, or what the guy in the video did, it can be hard to notice.
I recall a story about a guy who was doing finishing work on a high-rise building (carpets, light fixtures, etc). What he didn't know was that some moron had cross-connected the water main and the natural gas line during an earlier phase of construction. So when he went down a couple floors to use a finished restroom, decided to combine his rest stop with a smoke break, and flicked the cigarette butt into a toilet when he was finished with it...
The resulting explosion was heard throughout the building, and the poor man was blown head-first through the closed stall door. The toilet was DOA (in many, many chunks). I imagine he needed new pants too, for several reasons...
@Difdi: I read a version of this on the website for the darwin awards, except that it didn't involve a construction error, it was something about dumping something flammable into an outhouse.
Now just you wait. The gas company is going to go from saying there is no problem to charging these people for using the natural gas.
Or if not, these folks should capture the gas at the line in to the house and sell it back to the gas company at a profit. Win-win!
This site isn't just about safe drilling practices it's about stopping drilling altogether. I understand that we need to hold companies accountable to keeping our water safe but this environmentalism where everything we do is killing people gets really old. I live in Texas on the barnett shale and haven't seen any of this in Dallas or Fort Worth. It's fun to scare people and all but why don't we get more serious and talk about testing and regulating the companies as opposed to saying no to drilling. Aren't we trying to get off foreign oil still?
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@yantelope: But due to all the drilling in DFW, they are looking at it as a potential cause for all the trembler earthquakes we have been having since it started. Also to blame for the increased drilling supposedly, is the cryptosporidiosis outbreak a couple years back. The parasite lives underground and the drilling has been blamed for bring it to the surface. It closed many pools and watering holes if you remember.
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@CaptZ: Do you have a source for saying crypto lives underground? This is a parasite, which can live as a oocyst outside a host for a good period, but I'm not aware of a stage of the lifecycle where they live underground.
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@yantelope: I live on the Barnett Shale too. No, we're not seeing flammable tap water, but we are seeing earthquakes south of Fort Worth, which may be connected to the heavy drilling going on there (despite what PR flacks from the gas companies say).
If the negative consequences outweigh the positive for a community, they need to take a critical look at what's going on. Not saying they're right, not saying the drilling company's right, but some critical thinking is not a bad thing here.
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@SybilDisobedience: You'll recall that they send out a geologist to study the recent quakes and he said it wasn't the fault of the drilling. Now, granted, they really should have asked a seismologist, but that's just too hard to spell.
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@Lolotehe: And who would they be? Would it be the same investigative firm the tobacco companies hired to tell you cigarettes weren't bad for people?
Objectivity is always important.
@yantelope: Dunno about getting off foreign oil but these environmentalists just don't want to drill on American soil. But they like the heat in the winter and travel by air to protest at WTO and G20 meetings.
@dohtem: I think true environmentalists would more agree with lannister80 and suggest that it's not about where the drilling occurs, but that oil isn't the answer.
@Xerloq speaks Portuguese, too...: Actually, protesters rioting is fairly rare. A far more common occurrence is the police force being poorly trained (or not at all) for crowd control, and the POLICE riot. The city then blames the resulting civil disorder on the protesters rioting.
This happens so often in Seattle (the Seattle police in general are not trained for crowd control, and those who are, comprise too-small units) that it's actually expected by the protesters. You go to a protest fully expecting that no matter how polite, peaceful and law-abiding the rally is, it will end in teargas and pepper balls.
@Difdi: Still better than Seoul's \"Special Unit 1\" and \"Special Unit 2.\" Those guys were cops trained in riot control, and only riot control, with a bad rep for cracking skulls with wanton abandon. There were a few protests which actually disbanded when they saw the black body armor with 001 or 002 on it come out.
@Difdi: That is a serious mischaracterization of what happened in Seattle. I did a paper on riot control techniques back in college, and went through a fair few first-hand accounts of the Battle for Seattle. The Seattle police were poorly trained and made tactical and strategic mistakes, but the protesters had plenty of blame in escalating the situation, too. The _cops_ were not the ones who completely trashed and looted the downtown.
The idea that the police \"rioted\" either means you don't know what rioting is or you are badly misinformed.
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Another way to solve the problem is to call the gas company about a leak. They will send a technician with a hydrocarbon sniffer. Then show them the tap. A lot less dramatic, but would likely get the problem solved quicker.
It's not the gas company. If you smelled the water, it doesn't have that stinky smell of gas from methyl-mercaptan because this is just methane right outta the ground.
The drilling techniques are fracturing the rock allow gas to turn their well water supply fizzy with explosive gas.
@zentec: That wasn't my point. I'd call the gas company because they have a hydrocarbon detector. They also have all the connections to various agencies to find out what is going on.
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@DeadWriter: They might be better off to contact the fire department as they have the connections to the gas and water utilities as well as a direct line to the town or city leadership. One small spark under the right conditions could potentially cause an underground explosion in the well that could destroy a large portion of the town.
When I have had a natural gas leak in my house, I contacted the local fire departmnent because they have the combustible gas detectors, and they also have hoses and lots of water in case there is an explosion. They also come in a matter of minutes, while the gas utility can take an hour or more to respond.
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Fire Water out of the tap?
It's a giant hit at AA meetings.
or
Does this mean women can cook with the faucet now?
It was hard for me to decide.
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@Fresh-Fest-1986: I think you can now cook and wash the dishes at the same time. Pasta is even easier as the water comes out pre-boiled.
Not to pick nits but this is natural gas coming up from a well, not gasoline coming from the local Chevron station. It's possible that it doesn't even impact the taste of the water.
The greater concern is the drilling fluid getting into the water and contaminating it.
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@The Cheat: I'm pretty sure these folks are more concerned with their house filling with flammable methane just from doing the wash or taking a shower. It's especially dangerous since this is UNPROCESSED natural gas which is completely odorless (the rotten smell is added before being sent to your gas line). Methane can also suffocate you just like Carbon Monoxide can. The only reason people don't buy methane detectors is that your nose can alert you to a gas leak well before it becomes dangerous.
@The Cheat: No, I'm pretty sure the greater concern is the water catches fire and releases natural gas into the house (gas stove, pilot light, kaboom!).
Like Frankenstein says, Fire Bad!!!
@The Cheat: Actually what is more concerning is this guy's well is essentially a bomb waiting to explode. If there is a spark from the well pump or the cabeling going to the well pump then there will likely be an underground explosion that will likely destroy a good portion of the neighborhood.
@Rachacha: I'm not sure there's enough oxygen to support that kind of a violent detonation of his well.
Step 1: buy some tanks and hoses
Step 2: turn your faucet on into lower tanks, connected by hose to the other tanks.
Step 3: seal and sell a bunch of natural gas.
Step 4: use proceed to purchase bottled water.
Step 5: agree with water company - nothing to see here!
But this could have occured nbaturally. Not to mention it could also occur by digging a well.
What good are the fire hydrants when the fire dept. needs them?
@kingtimm: This is one of the really nasty hazards of the water supply problem. Natural gas, when mixed with water, is odorless, colorless and tasteless (as is the company responsible, heh). Short of lighting some on fire, there is literally no way to tell quickly.
The gas doesn't evaporate out of the water either; Miles and miles of rivers have due to natural gas spills before.
If the fire hydrants have gotten contaminated by natural gas, the first warning that the fire department is now (effectively) spraying gasoline on fires will be the first explosion.
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That's what happens when you let Texans run the nation for eight years.
@Trai_Dep: While there's some decent humor there, Bush had nothing to do with this. Though, I guess if my well runs dry, I can just blame Obama taxing my water.
@Con Seannery: No, he's taxing the gas company and spreading some of the 'profits' around the neighborhood.
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@Con Seannery: No No NO Con Seannery....Obama is not \"taxing\" your water... he's just spreading what you have around a bit. Don't be so selfish.
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That moustache is awesome!
Sorry, that was the first thing I thought. :P
@DoktorGoku: That is no simple moustache but rather a force of nature that needs its own channel to monitor it 24 hours a day.
One of the videos shows 2 wells 10 ft. apart. The guy says run off (hydrocarbons) from the wells go into a creek which feeds water supply in Texas somewhere. Run off from the streets and highways is way worse than that of the pad sites of oil wells. There are restrictions on how close wells can be to water surface sources. this is just another micheal moore type flick. Just someone else getting rich off the oil field. Move on nothing to see here. Drilling today is a lot more \"cleaner\" if you will than 20 years ago.
Ok now I want to see the video of him doing this with sprinklers in his backyard.
$2.00 via PayPal for that video.
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\"Am I missing... an eyebrow??\"
I'm sure the company's not going to admit to anything, even if someone's house burns down as a result of gas in the water.
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@magus_melchior: Nice reference. I am surprised the homeowner still has both of his (and his mustache for that matter).
Wow - being from Cleveland, I automatically assume anytime there's a burning water story, there will automatically be a Cleveland joke in there somewhere. Too young a crowd? Amazing restraint? I'm not sure. But it is refreshing...
Hmmmm. Me get firewater and much wampum.
@dj-anakin: Yes it's very sad! Sad that I pay for more for crappy city tap water than they're paying. How do two people use 1,000 gallons/week? $15 for 1,000 gallons? I wish.
Last night, I was just pondering to my wife that, if Hydrogen is a flammable Fuel, and Oxygen is required for combustion, why the hell can't we run our cars on water?
Apparently, now we can.
No need for a water heater any more!!
Prove it.
I seen a unicorn.
Also saw a purple dragon.
The purple dragon and unicorn were in a movie. Special effects, computer graphics and camera tricks are so nice.
So, PROVE IT. Prove that the natural gas company has contaminated your water. A special effects video ain't going to do it.
natural gas is odorless.
So that's a freaking time bomb waiting to happen.
I can't believe the above commenters are taking this so lightly. I'm speechless and dumbfounded to see the atrocities underlying this \"flammable water\". It is scary to see how it is detrimentally affecting our fellow Americans and to our environment.
Please watch the videos at WaterUnderAttack.com, and take it seriously, it makes me sick seeing all these comments that are just posts seeking to squeeze a laugh out of readers.
Free gas and oil.
What are you crying about?
I'm sure the lower hot water bill is canceled out by having to replace the melted faucets...
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@michaelthegreat: I don't know that I'd be comfortable with combustible water in a pressurized tank, being constantly heated. Imagine also if he's got an electric water heater and the tank bursts, and causes a spark.
The evils of Dihydrogen monoxide are apparent once again.
This was a common problem in New Jersey, but not from natural gas drilling.
I'm thinkin' now they'll get double billed, by the water company and the gas company.
Thanks for publishing a news story months after it initially broke (March-09).
Tip jar FAIL!
Your journalistic quality is continuing to degrade. Maybe, moving to NYC from NOLA has caused a few of the people at the Consumerist to start sleeping more and drinking less... All in good fun, but seriously: please quit reporting articles that are ancient.
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My theory is that this guy installed a hard-liquor faucet in his sink and, for some reason, he doesn't remember, or he's hiding it (and his alcoholism) from his family by blaming 'natural gas drilling'.
Just curious, what are the chances of this being hydrogen gas from the water heater? I've always seen warning labels on water heaters about something along these lines but never bothered to test it out.
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Add to the sign - do not set this water on fire.
I wonder if the water company will start adding natural gas charges to the bill now lol
I recall a major article on the world's fresh water supply put out by NGS back in the 80's. It was a dedicated binding dedicated to the subject.
In that they detailed one fellow that has to burn gas off that is in the water table his well is sunk in or the leaking gas will cause a major accident in his home.
What is needed here is a revision of the residents well to include an galvanized gas separation tank.
Here is an article outlining how to deal with gaseous water supplies.
Also, don't let the drillers do the testing. Get a reputable firm to come out to do the assessments and get the gov't involved from the start, like the DOE, DOA, and the EPA.
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I prefer my water just straight up H2O, thanks!
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This is why fracking (the process of forcefully injecting chemicals into the ground to crack bedrock to get to the natural gas) needs to be regulated. Companies won't disclose the chemicals they use and guard them as proprietary. The chemicals then leak in to the groundwater.
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Although distressing, this is nothing new. When I was attending Indiana University of Pennsylvania back in the 70's the water there would burn also.
Like in Mexico ~ we did not drink the water!
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Nothing wrong with flammable water...my mind is now blown