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Federal lawmakers consider changes in gasoline to protect water from possible carcinogen Gasoline prices could rise if MTBE banned; ethanol producers aren’t prepared to produce enough to replace it Bart Jansen Associated Press Writer
U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer held up a jar of drinking water that smelled like turpentine to give lawmakers a sniff of the problems from a chemical that reduces air pollution but also ruins groundwater.
The water from Santa Monica was tainted with the gasoline additive MTBE, which helped cut peak ozone levels in Los Angeles 10 percent in the last three years.
But the possible carcinogen also leaks out of underground storage tanks or from car crashes. In portions as small as a tablespoon in an Olympic-sized swimming pool, the chemical renders water undrinkable.
“MTBE is destroying water supplies throughout the nation,” Boxer, a San Francisco Democrat, said during a Senate hearing Oct. 5. “Clean air is crucial to our health. So is a safe drinking water supply. We need to do both — not one, but both.”
The hearing was one in a series that federal lawmakers are holding as they wrestle with proposals to change the recipe for gasoline, in an effort to get rid of MTBE seeping into groundwater in California and 25 other states.
But industry officials warn that banning MTBE without getting rid of another federal requirement in the mix could cause gas prices to spike higher. The change could cost California motorists $840 million more a year, according to a state government estimate.
“I think it’s important we don’t jump into any rash decisions,” said Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., who headed the Environment and Public Works subcommittee hearing. “We should not act in haste.”
MTBE used to meet Congressional requirement Use of methyl tertiary butyl ether, a petrochemical compound better known as MTBE, has increased since 1990. That year, it began to be used to satisfy a Congressional requirement that regions with severe air pollution put more oxygen in their gasoline.
But the Environmental Protection Agency considers MTBE a possible carcinogen. Because of spills and leaks, the chemical has been found in 10,000 groundwater sites statewide, forcing the closure of wells in Santa Monica and South Lake Tahoe.
“We’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg in terms of health or toxicity concerns,” said Daniel Greenbaum, head of an EPA panel that studied the issue this year.
In March, California Gov. Gray Davis ordered that the gas additive no longer be used in the state’s supplies after 2002, calling it an environmental risk.
The EPA panel decided not to recommend a ban on MTBE, but did advise that its use be substantially reduced. The group refused to define “substantial.”
Boxer proposed phasing MTBE completely out nationwide in four years.
The hitch is that the Clean Air Act requires reformulated gas in areas with high air pollution to contain 2 percent oxygen, which reduces air pollution. To meet that requirement, MTBE is used in 85 percent of the special gas and ethanol is used in 8 percent.
Ethanol producers are not prepared to supply enough ethanol to replace MTBE immediately. Gasoline prices could rise 6-7 cents per gallon If MTBE were banned and the oxygen requirement remained, the California Energy Commission estimated gas prices could rise 6 to 7 cents per gallon, costing the average motorist $40 per year — or $840 million for everyone statewide, according to Michael Kenny, executive officer of the state Air Resources Board.
Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-San Diego, introduced a bill to exempt California from the oxygen requirement.
Allowing each state to create their own gas standards, however, could create “boutique” fuels with wide disparities between states, Greenbaum said.
“It would get very complicated very fast,” he said.
Gas producers, who advocated a federal standard, argued that oxygen is unnecessary to meet clean-air goals. Officials from Chevron Corp. and Sunoco Inc. told lawmakers that their companies could produce gas meeting air pollution goals with a “substantial” reduction in MTBE so long as the oxygen requirement is abolished.
Industry officials blame the MTBE problem on leaking storage tanks.
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