The American Water Works Association (AWWA) recently called for immediate action from the Administration to address contaminated water supplies from the fuel additive, methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE).

"MTBE contamination presents a real and growing threat to the quality of our drinking water resources and public health," said Jack Hoffbuhr, Executive Director of AWWA. "The large clean up costs and possible health risks associated with MTBE contamination demand immediate focus on ways to prevent it."

Despite its benefits as a gasoline additive, MTBE in underground tanks has seeped into drinking water wells in a number of communities around the country. The clean-up costs in one case, in Santa Monica, California, are projected to reach $150 million alone. AWWA estimates that costs to water utilities nation-wide to prevent, clean up and treat water supplies contaminated with MTBE could run higher than $1 billion.

The Clean Air Act of 1990 requires that the gasoline sold in areas where smog levels are at their highest - including Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia - use an oxygenate to burn fuel more efficiently. To comply with the oxygenate requirement, many gasoline producers have added MTBE to gasoline, although other additives produce similar improvements in air quality.

"Certainly, we must continue to improve our air quality, but not at the expense of our nation's drinking water," Hoffbuhr said, adding that protecting water sources is a vital issue for water utilities.

In July 1999, a Blue Ribbon panel of experts compiled by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) issued a report that recommended strengthening existing programs to reduce MTBE contaminated drinking water supplies.

Due to environmental and health threats posed by MTBE, several states including California and New York have taken steps to reduce or phase out MTBE use. The Administration now has an opportunity to demand a dramatic reduction or ban on MTBE use.

"AWWA agrees with the Blue Ribbon Panel and states from Maine to California: MTBE use must be addressed immediately," Hoffbuhr said. "Local water utilities stand ready to work with the Clinton Administration, Congress, state and local government to implement the Blue Ribbon Panel's findings and protect drinking water from further contamination."

• Methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) is added to gasoline to make it burn more cleanly and efficiently. It has been added to gasoline since the 1970's to increase octane levels, but has become more prevalent as an additive to reformulated gas, or RFG.
  
  
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) requires RFG to be sold in areas with the nation's highest ozone and smog rates. As such, RFG must be sold in certain areas in the following states: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, Wisconsin.
  
  
• Other states have voluntarily used RFG. Those states include Kentucky, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
  
  
• MTBE has been detected in water in a number of places where it is used in gasoline. It is highly soluble and travels faster and farther in water than other gasoline components.
  
  
• MTBE has a turpentine-like taste and odor, so even small amounts of MTBE in water can make water unacceptable for drinking.
  
  
• At high levels, MTBE may pose a public health threat.
  
  
  

Information on the extent of water contamination by MTBE is incomplete. According to the USEPA, recent studies in the Northeast found detectable levels of MTBE in about 15 percent of the drinking water sampled; about one percent of the drinking water had levels above 35 parts per billion.

USEPA's MTBE advisory level for taste and odor is 20 to 40 parts per billion. Although some MTBE water contamination comes from car exhaust, leaking storage tanks are the leading source of MTBE contamination of water. USEPA regulations require underground gasoline storage tanks to be leak-proof, spill-proof, and corrosion-proof. The final deadline for all tanks was December 1998. USEPA says about 80 percent of regulated tanks are now in compliance.

Another source of MTBE water contamination is two-cycle engines, such as the kind used in personal watercraft. These engines discharge up to 30 percent of their fuel unburned, leading to direct gasoline contamination of water resources.