MAY 26 was Memorial Day in the U.S. This is a “big deal” in this country because this is the day when the Americans, as a nation, remember and honor their soldiers who fell in combat in Iwo Jima (where 6800 Americans were killed and 17,000 wounded as against the 21,000 Japanese defenders who all perished because they refused to surrender), Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and lately Iraq.

Memorial Day is equivalent to our National Heroes Day and it is also a national holiday where malls hold a Memorial Day sale and houses display the American flag (it’s a year-round display at the house where I am residing).

Although majority of Americans oppose the Iraq war, but because of their intense patriotism and love of country (“We did it so others could be free”, as one 92 year old World War II veteran said it), many young men and women, including those who belong to rich and affluent families, still enlist with the Armed Forces (Air Force, Navy, Marines and the Army).

An added attraction is that the Armed Forces is so professionalized that it provides many technical training and expertise other than soldiering itself, so that when a soldier goes out of the military, he or she can immediately find a job in government or the private sector. Our Philippine Military Academy in Baguio and the Philippine National Police Academy also provide the same professional and ethical training and yet many officers are dismal failures (corrupt, inefficient and abusive) when in service.

The non-officers or enlisted men are also misplaced because they are not trained on technical skills they will need if they leave the service. Hopefully our government can address these defects in our military system.

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In Meeker in northwestern Colorado, about 350 kms from where this writer resides, there is an energy boom in a small town or county (that is what they are called here), Rio Blanco with 6,000 inhabitants. This remote county has already 2,600 natural gas wells and is bracing for as many as 19,000 more wells over the next 15 years.

At present 75% of the town’s income comes from oil and gas companies. It is also expected that population will increase to 18,000 by 2035 and 39,000 if commercial oil shale development takes place.

As I have mentioned earlier in my previous columns, after traveling cross country in four states (California, Arizona, Utah and Colorado), I can see tremendous energy deposits (coal, oil and gas) underground which are continental sedimentary in origin and can even rival the total oil deposits in the Middle East. Unfortunately, most of these energy reserves are taboo to developers because of unreasonable objections from the local activists/environmentalists. Shades of RISE in Iloilo!

The natural gas being exploited in Meeker is primarily methane (CH3) because coal and methane almost always occur as twins in a given deposit or reserve. From a geological view point, the deeper the coal deposit, the more methane gas it will contain. It is conventional wisdom to drill the methane first (technically termed as degassing operation) in order to drain methane from the coal deposit so it can be safely mined and at the same time use the gathered methane as gas fuel.

In a recent coal deposit discovery in South Cotabato, the plan is also to drill for methane first before mining the coal.

Methane is odorless, tasteless and invisible but the deadliest gas that when inhaled, it causes asphyxiation and death within minutes. Methane can also be a by-product of buried vegetation and it can be carried by underground water into our open wells.

In the past, many people in Iloilo died while cleaning an open well. After pumping out the water, they immediately enter the well’s bottom to clean it, unaware of the presence of concentrated methane gas. Within minutes, they collapse and die.

It is advisable to blow in air using an ordinary electric pump and wait for some time before entering the well. An additional safety measure is to lower a chick in a basket and if the chick is not affected, then it is safe to go down the well.

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