MTBE / ????

[Cswanson]

Now that the word is finally out on this, that our water systems are becoming polluted with this chemical. We need to ask a couple questions. 1)Is your water company checking for this chemical. If they don't specifically check for it I don't believe it shows up under normal test procedures.2) How much of this pollutant is entering our water bodies thru the use of Jet-Skis? 3)And just to be fair, how about all those 2 strokes presently out there? We can not believe that the only source of pollution from MTBE is from underground tanks. Write to your representatives now to have MTBE removed from our fuels ASAP!!! The oil companies are not adding this to the gas because they want to, but because they are required to by law.

[artb]

It seems strange to me that there is so little postings under conservation. I saw the article in 60 minutes about MTBE, I commented on it I think under New England, I believe we should try and stirup the government on it, but the congress is only interested in dealing with something like Elane. I have e-mailed and called congressmen, and media. This was at the begining of the week, I have zero responses. Also please notice there has been nothing on TV or in the newspapers about MTBE, what gives? I know no one knows what to do.

[bdowning]

Allegedly, the EPA has finally woken up and is conducting "studies" on the adverse impact of MTBE. Unfortunately, the Clean Air and Water Act mandates cleaner burning gasoline and there is no quick and cheap substitute for MTBE, even though the stuff has turned out to be toxic. It will probably take years for studies for safer alternatives, new legislation, new regulations, and enforcement initiatives before we see much reduction. Meanwhile, drink bottled water ;-);

-bd

[saxatilis]

Guys, guys, guys....sorry I am so late to the post, but I had to because to the tone of your notes. First, a couple of things about MTBE (Methyl tert butyl ether) is as been around and KNOWN as a problem is our ground water and surface water every since its beginning use in gasoline as a oxyenate(sp)(early 1980's). Second, the EPA has also known about MTBE for just as long except there was no real good study data to determine it how toxic it truely is so they didn't do much about it (pass cleanup standard for water). Third, it gets into our ground water and surface water primarily via releases from underground storage tanks. It is a problem because it is a relatively small molecule that is readily dissolved in water and air. We are now starting to see MTBE is drinking water wells miles from any UST's or know sources of MTBE. Some researchers have hypothesised that it is impacting wells from the air.

Remember, the oil companies had there chance back in the early 1980's when they could have used ethanol instead of MTBE, but they got greedy and thought they could make more money with MTBE. I guess they were wrong.

[lilstevie]

Another example of a governmental "solution" being worse than the original problem? It seems to me that there are a couple of factors working in our favor on this issue - MTBE does enter groundwater primarily through underground storage tank ruptures/leaks, and USTs are very well monitored in this state. The cases of MTBE infiltrating groundwater have generally been in california where it's been in use longer because of state clean air regs. Also - I believe it STINKS so you'll know if your water gets contaminated. There's a good EPA document about MTBE available on the web - physical properties (odor, volatility) and also a description of the animal studies that have been conducted to date and their findings relative to administered doses... kind of a tough read, but full of data.

http://www.epa.gov/ost/drinking/mtbe.pdf