MTBE Horror Cleaning Ground Water And Soil To Cost $30 Billion.htm

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MTBE Horror - Cleaning Soil

And Ground Water To

Cost $30 Billion

By Dan Shapley

Poughkeepsie Journal

12-2-1

 

HYDE PARK - A gasoline additive intended to limit air pollution has not only

proved ineffective, but has also contaminated thousands of drinking water

supplies nationwide. The cost of cleaning all that pollution has been

estimated at close to $30 billion. The cost to human health is still

unknown.

 

MTBE, or methyl tertiary-butyl ether, has become a household word in the

Greenbush area of Hyde Park, which has the dubious distinction as having the

most widespread contamination known in New York state.

 

While Greenbush's pollution may be the worst documented in New York, the

chemical is causing problems to neighborhoods across the county, state and

nation.

 

When John Gardner of Hyde Park thinks about the MTBE pollution in his

neighborhood, he envisions a long list of culprits.

 

''I don't know if anyone's really going to do anything,'' Gardner said.

''The people who are supposed to be in there fighting for you aren't really

doing it.''

 

 

100 Local Wells Dirty

 

More than 100 wells in Dutchess and Ulster counties are contaminated by

MTBE. The state has pointed to leaking underground petroleum storage tanks

in most cases.

 

Nationwide, it's estimated that 8 percent of underground water supplies are

contaminated -- and MTBE is five times more likely to be found in areas like

Dutchess County, where federal law requires that gasoline be formulated with

chemicals intended to reduce air pollution from car emissions.

 

In New York state alone, there have been more than 1,800 reported spills

involving MTBE, according to Toxics Targeting, an Ithaca-based company that

maps environmental problems based on state and federal data.

 

People who discover the pollution in their drinking water seem to compile an

ever-growing list of complaints targeted at oil companies and every level of

government.

 

The federal government in 1990 set in motion wider use of the chemical.

While MTBE has been used in gasoline since 1979, its use grew with the Clean

Air Act of 1990, which required gasoline sold in polluted areas to have a

higher oxygen content. MTBE is the oxygenate preferred by refiners, and its

content in gasoline rose dramatically through the 1990s.

 

Lawsuits against gasoline companies allege the additive was favored over

others -- such as corn-based ethanol or other ethers -- because MTBE, a by-

product of a refining process, is cheaper. Several Hyde Park residents are

among those who are suing oil companies over contamination.

 

It was thought gasoline with a higher oxygen content would reduce

smog-causing emissions, but the National Research Council released reports

in 1996 and 1999 showing that oxygenates don't significantly reduce smog.

And the reformulated gasoline is particularly ineffective in newer,

well-maintained vehicles.

 

''The data shows that you don't get a whole lot of benefit,'' said Ray

Wassel, a senior program manager at the National Research Council who

directed both studies.

 

Ethanol, the second most-used oxygenate, was no more effective. Other

oxygenates were not studied.

 

New York has ordered the oil industry to phase out the use of MTBE by 2004,

but some oxygenate will have to be used unless Congress changes U.S. law.

 

California has run into difficulties in its efforts to phase out MTBE.

Federal regulators have refused to allow California to discontinue using

oxygenated gasoline.

 

Unlike other gasoline constituents -- some of which are also suspected of

causing serious health problems -- MTBE is especially soluble in water. That

means when a gasoline spill or leak occurs, MTBE is able to infiltrate

drinking water more easily and spread farther.

 

It also makes gasoline spills more costly to clean up.

 

It costs about $3,000 to install a filter at a home to cleanse water, and

another $3,000 per year to monitor it, according to Cesare Manfredi,

regional spill engineer for the DEC.

 

At that cost, it's easy to see how MTBE, which spreads so much farther and

faster than other constituents of gasoline, drives up the cost of addressing

spills.

 

The groundwater around a spill must also be pumped from the ground and

cleansed, at a cost sometimes measured in millions of dollars.

 

New York state tries to have those responsible for pollution pay for the

cleanup, but the process can take a long time, leaving taxpayers responsible

for the costs at least in the short-term.

 

A U.S. Senate committee has authorized spending $400 million to clean up

MTBE contamination, but a report by Komex H20 Science, a California

environmental company, estimates the price tag is closer to $29 billion.

 

The biggest threat is posed by leaking underground petroleum storage tanks,

such as those at gasoline stations, though other sources of contamination

also exist.

 

Even a gallon of gasoline spilled from a lawn mower can contaminate a home's

well because MTBE is so soluble. The DEC says even residual gasoline in

tankers can contaminate home heating fuel with MTBE, which, in turn, could

pollute drinking water if spilled. That's what the DEC believes happened on

Schlueter Drive in East Fishkill.

 

In Hyde Park, leaking underground gasoline storage tanks are suspected of

causing contamination to more than 80 home wells. The DEC has labeled four

gas station properties on Violet Avenue as potentially responsible for the

pollution. The DEC believes leaking pipes at a gas station on Route 52 in

East Fishkill are responsible for another instance of contamination in a

residential neighborhood there.

 

A federal law requires all underground fuel tanks be removed or replaced

with new corrosive-resistant tanks. The initiative, which has been in the

works nearly 20 years, has reduced the number of tanks nationwide by more

than half, according to the EPA, but tanks -- both registered and

unregistered -- continue to have problems.

 

Some old tanks resemble ''rusted soup cans'' when they're finally removed,

according to John Kushwara, acting chief of the Water Compliance Branch of

the EPA in the region.

 

The EPA estimates about 70 to 75 percent of New York's tanks are now in

compliance with the more strict guidelines, which include double-lined

fiberglass hulls.

 

''The idea is to stop them from leaking before they start leaking, so we

don't have to pay for it after,'' Kushwara said.

 

Gas stations must test their tanks to make sure they aren't leaking. Those

that don't report to the state are sent computer-generated letters telling

them that they're out of compliance.

 

Once a month, Manfredi said, DEC representatives travel to gas stations to

do inspections and penalize those out of compliance.

 

Even then, it can take time to address problems. In 25 years, the DEC

identified at least a dozen spills along a half-mile stretch of Violet

Avenue -- also known as Route 9G -- in the Greenbush area of Hyde Park. But

widespread contamination was discovered only a year ago.

 

The DEC says earlier spills were addressed and are not causing the present

problems.

 

Some residents have doubts about that.

 

The DEC has also acknowledged that it and its contractors have failed to

test all home water filters routinely. In some cases, that means residents

have unknowingly drunk tainted water after having a filter installed in

their home.

 

In addition to paying for costly cleanups, Kushwara said money also is

needed to prevent leaks and spills.

 

The EPA has nine people on staff to inspect gas stations for compliance with

federal guidelines in Region 2, which includes New York, New Jersey and the

Caribbean. The DEC has only a handful for the hundreds of gas stations in

our area.

 

''It's pretty common across the states, that there are not enough people or

not enough resources devoted to this problem,'' Kushwara said. ''It's all a

matter of competing priorities.''

 

________________

 

Relevant Web links For more information about MTBE, visit these Web sites:

 

- www.mtbecontamination.com

is a site maintained by the law firm Lewis Saul & Associates dedicated to

MTBE. It includes maps of New York counties.

 

- www.epa.gov/safewater

is a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency site that includes information

about MTBE.

 

- www.toxicstargeting.com

is the Web site of an Ithaca-based company that maps environmental problems

based on state and federal data. The Web site includes information about the

contamination in Hyde Park and elsewhere.