Comments on: New Trend: Flammable Tap Water

By: NATURAL GAS drilling is contaminating drinking water supplies; companies like Halliburton fighting aggressively to keep “chemical recipe” used in controversial drilling technique secret « The Conservation Report

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 04:27:55 +0000

[...] HeatingOil.com: According to Infrastructurist, communities from Montana and Texas have been similarly affected by corporate drilling for natural [...]

By: Kathleen Charles

Kathleen Charles — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 19:05:20 +0000

When people are already established in an area and a company comes in and drills thus contaminating the existing wells or bedrock into which wells are drilled… they are morally bound to remediate the land. What oil/gas company do you know with any morals?

By: Interesting Reading #347 – The Blogs at HowStuffWorks

Interesting Reading #347 – The Blogs at HowStuffWorks — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 22:02:19 +0000

[...] New Trend: Flammable Tap Water – “The whole natural gas question in this country is a complicated one. On one hand, we have oodles of the stuff, it’s relatively low carbon, and it would seem to be a sensible pillar of our country’s energy future. On the other hand, extracting it from Mother Earth does nasty stuff to the water supply. How nasty? Check out this video shot in Fort Lupton, Colorado, a little town just north of Denver’s northernmost suburban sprawl…” [...]

By: Together Here

Together Here — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:42:55 +0000

[...] check out the full post on The Infrastructurist here [...]

By: admin

admin — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:00:18 +0000

Carbonates –

Except that the water well long predated the gas well…

Jebediah

By: carbonates

carbonates — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 17:57:27 +0000

If you drill a water well through rock that also contains natural gas, guess what? You get water with gas in it. The stupidity here is from the water well drillers. This is related to geology, but probably not related to production of natural gas by the oil and gas industry. What is really needed here is more regulation of water well drilling, right?

By: frogggggg

frogggggg — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:18:30 +0000

Hm.
its a real problem, happened in PA as well as some of the other places you mentioned. In PA i believe it was due to Marcellus Shale drilling. Its funny all the folks saying that its been happening for 50 years or 150 years … as if that makes it ok.

Its also funny the person that got all righteous about the distinction between Fort Lupton and the outer rural areas near there. As if the fact that its not a municipal source of water makes it less important. As if the fact that some folks live in outer areas that aren’t so very efficiently tied into the grid system means that they don’t deserve to have water, instead of flames coming out of their kitchen sinks. People get righteous about the weirdest things, bet their tap water isn’t flammable…

Theres a lot of really nasty stuff associated with natural gas drilling, the fact that it affects our water so drastically really permeates all the other elements as well. Saying all the stuff about methane coming from the tap water and criticizing computer use is also not really the point. We live in an age of stuff, we best chill out on all the stuff, that much is sure, and all this deep shale drilling is incredibly toxic, so ‘we’ should cut that out too.

By: Waldo Jaquith - links for 2009-10-15

Waldo Jaquith - links for 2009-10-15 — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:04:33 +0000

[...] Infrastructuraist: New Trend—Flammable Tap Water Natural gas product can mean flammable tap water, as this amazing ten-second video shows. (tags: fire gas water pollution energy environment) [...]

By: Cyrus

Cyrus — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:23:32 +0000

Bullcrap? How about you watch some of the longer videos before you rush to conclusions.

http://waterunderattack.com/

By: No nonsense

No nonsense — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:05:21 +0000

This is bullcrap. there are millions of wells in the US and half a dozen have had this problem over the last 150 years. Your article makes it sound like this is happening everywhere. Simply not so.

Go take a hot bath and let the natural gas heat the water you use. Go get in your plastic and rubberized car. Better yet. Use your computer to defile the very substances that allow you the priveledge to even write your thoughts on the web. Hypocrite. Bet you won’t allow this post.

By: NYC Water Supply » Blog Archive » New Trend: Flammable Tap Water

NYC Water Supply » Blog Archive » New Trend: Flammable Tap Water — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:55:59 +0000

[...] http://www.infrastructurist.com/2009/10/14/new-trend-flammable-tap-water/ [...]

By: Can you light your tap water on fire? - PreGameLobby

Can you light your tap water on fire? - PreGameLobby — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:57:49 +0000

[...] Can you light your tap water on fire? This guy from Colorado can. CAN YOU DO THIS WITH YOUR TAP WATER? from JOSHFOX on Vimeo. The whole natural gas question in this country is a complicated one. On one hand, we have oodles of the stuff, it

By: Devin

Devin — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:53:51 +0000

Not to defend this at all, but I would like to point out that similar environmentally destructive things happen when drilling for regular oil. Natural gas isn’t much worse off in this area then any other fossil fuel. Tighter regulations should be in place to clean up practices of all energy operations be it natgas, oil, or otherwise.

Of course the only real way to put an end to these sorts of problems is to switch to renewable energy and move to plug-in vehicles for transportation but that’s not going to happen over night.

Full disclosure: We have a Prius and a Civic GX-NGV.

By: Manhattan

Manhattan — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:38:25 +0000

On the bright side… cooking Ramen noodles is a lot easier with flaming water.

By: TJ

TJ — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:06:43 +0000

Re: inflammable — it is correct, flammable is incorrect, of course, but English like all living languages evolves. Soon we will all be buying less hamburgers irregardless at the more unique drive-thru at nite under the sodium lites.

Re: carbon, etc. The inflammable contents of the tap water are probably worse greenhouse gasses than the carbon dioxide they produce when burned.

Re: energy and greenhouse gasses: Did you know that hydroelectric power can be worse for global warming than burning fossil fuels? The organic matter at the bottom of the man-made lake gets turned into methane, which is a much worse greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

By: FT.com | FT Energy Source | The Source: Saudis seek compensation for climate deal; what Obama must do; the cost of carbon capture; flammable tap water, and more

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:05:22 +0000

[...] In Colorado, gas makes tap water flammable (with spectacular pyrotechnic video) (Infrastructurist) [...]

By: Øyvind

Øyvind — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:31:11 +0000

BJC, I got “Find your local Citroën dealer here”.

By: meneame.net

meneame.net — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 09:40:19 +0000

En algunos pueblos de Texas, el agua corriente es inflamable [ENG]…

¿Qué pasa si acercas un mechero a un chorro de agua en tu casa? Se apagará, obviamente. O eso esperas. En algunos pueblos de Texas, a lo mejor el chorro te explota en la cara, como se puede apreciar en el vídeo. ¿La razón? La perforación para ex…

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 06:41:33 +0000

Why doesn’t he connect a pipe to the water and seperate the natural gas from the water. This way, he can collect natural gas for FREE!

By: ubme

ubme — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 05:46:38 +0000

Soooo, how many people went to go check to see if their tab water would catch on fire. I know I did…now from some reason i feel kinda stupid for doing so.
1) Make sure Dallas still has run-of-the-mill, non-flammable water. [Check]

By: Anon

Anon — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 04:53:52 +0000

FAKE!!!

By: ohmygodtheresadictionaryonmycomputer

ohmygodtheresadictionaryonmycomputer — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 03:03:04 +0000

USAGE Both inflammable and flammable mean ‘easily set on fire.’ The opposite is nonflammable. Where there is a danger that inflammable could be understood to mean its opposite, that is, ‘not easily set on fire,’ flammable should be used to avoid confusion. Inflammable is usually used figuratively or in nontechnical contexts ( : his inflammable temper).

By: Rosalie Everson

Rosalie Everson — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 03:01:16 +0000

The problem wells are not in the City of Fort Lupton, they are about eight miles east of the city in unincorporated Weld County, thus the residents in the video are obtaining their water through private wells they own which were drilled on their property.

They are not living in “a little town just north of Denver’s northernmost suburban sprawl” but in the country.

Fort Lupton’s city water all comes from mountain sources via the NCWCD pipelines and its residents do not have a problem with flaming water. Any bit of logical thinking would tell you that the state would not tolerate that kind of contamination in a municipal water supply.

Such a glaring inaccuracy casts doubt on the validity of the entire report, and you don’t want that, do you?

This is hardly a new problem, residents who have lived in the area say they were able to light the water from certain wells over 50 years ago.

By: BJC

BJC — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 02:08:04 +0000

I love that the Google Ad at the bottom of the article is for someone selling Natural Gas Energy Stocks!

Long live flammable water (until the gas co. finds a way to charge us for it)!

By: admin

admin — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 01:52:49 +0000

Ed,

Thanks — I hadn’t yet seen this story. Interesting and important stuff.

Jebediah

By: Ed Hillsman

Ed Hillsman — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 01:46:16 +0000

You wrote “So it seems to shape up as a case of lower carbon emissions and potential energy independence vs. kitchen faucets across the country becoming flamethrowers.” But the methane coming with the water is also a potent greenhouse gas, contributing about 21 times as much warming per unit mass as carbon dioxide. If not burned at the tap (and converted to carbon dioxide) it ultimately goes into the air. So it may be “potential energy independence” vs. flamethrowers, but it may not be helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions at all, just switching the compound. See the article on methane leaks in today’s New York Times at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/business/energy-environment/15degrees.html?hp

By the way, I like your blog. This is the first time I’ve seen a problem here like this.

By: New Trend: Flammable Tap Water

New Trend: Flammable Tap Water — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 01:09:25 +0000

[...] New Trend: Flammable Tap Water · “Until a year ago, these Fort Lupton residents had run-of-the-mill, non-flammable water.” [...]