Fire on water

For those of you used to party tricks that involve uncles, ears and nickels, Jessica Ernst has a new one: lighting your tap water on fire. Take a look at this bizarre sequence of photographs here, on TreeHugger.

Now, as we've written (here and here), British Columbia may have nothing to brag about when it comes to water, but Alberta, it seems, is taking it to a whole new level

Jessica lives just east of Calgary, in the village of Rosebud. An environmental consultant for several oil and gas companies, Jessica knows a thing or two about flammable liquids—the conventional kind. Jessica lives near EnCana, one of the leading companies in the recovery of oilsands bitumen. Recently, Jessica had tests done on her well: they revealed high levels of methane, ethane and various other fossil fuels. Really, though, that's just scientist-talk: when your dogs won't drink the water—and you can, you know, light it—not much further testing is necessary.

A provincial report on Jessica's dog-snubbed water concluded that the gas there was occurring naturally and had nothing to do with her neighbours at EnCana. Regardless, Jessica asked Gywn Morgan, the erstwhile CEO of EnCana, to come to Rosebud and check out the gases. She's still waiting for a response to her invitation.

Anyone perform the Bic lighter test on Vancouver's water recently?

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