RANGER — The groundwater on part of Jay Marcom’s ranch does something that most water won’t do: It catches fire.
A leaky natural gas pipeline near a compressor station polluted the ground water with benzene, xylene and toluene — all linked to cancer in humans. Test wells and barrels of excavated dirt from the site cover an area about half the size of a football field. The dirt on the surface smells like motor oil, and water dipped from the test well smells like gasoline.
With a camera crew watching, Marcom squeezed the liquid from a sock used to soak up the slick, and lit it with a flaming piece of paper. Three times.
"I just want it clean," he said.
