Is Your Water on Fire?

Does it seem extreme by asking, “Is Your Water on Fire?” All you have to do is look on Google to discover that people are reporting their water actually catches fire. What else do you know about your water? Do you drink all of your water from plastic bottles because you don’t trust or like the water from your tap? The USGS says on its website that although three-quarters of the earth’s surface is covered by water, only about 2% of it is drinkable. That is pretty sad and it should help us to understand why water is so precious of a resource. Unfortunately, we waste our water all the time. Why is it that some people have reported their water actually burns and how is that possible? One of the main causes of this is the recent practice of Fracking. This is a process of using water pressure to break up rock deep in the ground to get at the gas reserves there. Abrahm Lustgarten writes in the online journal ProPublica (May 9, 2011) that Duke University reports “flammable methane gas in drinking water wells” in Pennsylvania and other states. Yes, people have said they can light the water coming out of their faucets. The August 2011 issue of Readers Digest has a story that is a personal account of this issue. You may say that your water is not on fire so why should you care? The real issues is what we are doing to our water in general. We have runoff from yards and farms, chemical spills, and all types of issues. Some of our problems are from the earth’s natural processes and others are manmade. The Readers Digest issue mentioned before also reports that our water has in it: rocket fuel, pesticides, antibiotics, and the list goes on. To be fair, some of these elements are so minute that scientists have only recently recorded them. Long term, if we don’t take care of our water we won’t even have 2% to drink. What can you really do about all of this? First, write your local, state, and federal representatives and let them know how important this is. They are listening to the big corporations who say this is no big deal. They may ask about water like the one Lee Iaccoca did about clean air, “How much clean air do we need?” Second, pay attention to how you use water. If you are not drinking your tap water, why aren’t you? Don’t like the taste, don’t trust the pipes, or don’t really know what is in your water? One good answer for the average person is to filter their water. That was one of the conclusions in the Readers Digest article. The average pitcher with a filter will do a great job for most drinking situations. Drop the plastic bottle habit and get a reusable bottle. If you want clean more water, get an under the counter water filter. If you want to clean all of your water then you will need something like a reverse osmosis system. There will be more details about some of these ideas in future articles but see the links below for more information.