Junk science makes sleazy plaintiff lawyers rich?
Well, there are problems in a power system that could lead to what is described in the article, in particular, phase imbalances in a three phase system with a poor ground (or no ground).
Stray voltage is not junk science.
It is typically caused by improper grounding. It can be caused by grounding in too many places and sending neutral current through the ground system.
“Junk science makes sleazy plaintiff lawyers rich?”
Improper grounding at the electrical entrance COULD indeed create a situation where water pipes and gas lines could be “hot”. Improper grounding at the substation could do the same thing.
Seems that it would be easy to test for though...
Remember about twenty five years ago when “stray voltage” became a worry? Lots of con artists started plying the trade of claiming to “find” safe places in your home to put your child.
Others claimed that you could be hurt or killed by being under a high voltage power line.
Bunk.
A few years after this, a local man bought and sub divided an area right under a main power line running from the local power plant. He even made the power line service road the main street of this sub division.
There have been NO complaints from anyone living under those power lines. Ever!
Not junk science at all. Stray voltage is real and it can cause problems.
I was on a 4 week jury trial several years ago where a local farmer was suing the power utility for the damage stray voltage was doing to his milk production.
It's as simple as this: All electricity generated and sent out the wire must come back to the generation point. How much of that returns via the neutral vs through the earth depends primarily on the condition of the neutral. Electricity ALWAYS follows the path of least resistance. In the testimony I heard, the utility itself indicated that something like 12% returned on the neutral, which meant that 88% returned through the earth. It;s been a long time and those numbers are probably not exact, but I was shocked (no pun intended) how much current was going through the earth. If the conditions are right, the path could indeed be down the metal of a water line which could indeed cause you issues if you became part of that circuit.
It's simple really.