N ovember 2 0 0 0 • V olume 2 • N umber 6 - American Water ...

MTBE: THE WATER-POLLUTING GENIE EPA
KNOWINGLY LET OUT OF THE BOTTLE
Tom Randall
Carol Browner, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Administrator, complimented the Senate Environment
and Public Works Committee during the closing days of
the final session of Congress for considering a bill to
phase-out the water-polluting gasoline oxygenate methyl
tertiary-buty ether (MTBE). Her statements echoed her
comments of May 20, months after EPA’s "Blue Ribbon"
panel found MTBE to be a serious threat to water quality:
Threats posed by MTBE to water supplies in many
areas of the country are a growing concern. Action by
Congress is the fastest and best way to address this problem."
There are several disturbing aspects to Browner’s
new opposition to MTBE use, which has now polluted
ground water in 31 states, as well as the solutions being
entertained.
EPA KNEW ALL ALONG
Browner made the water-polluting properties sound
like a new finding that was unearthed by her panel,
which was hastily assembled after Democratic Governor
Gray Davis ordered a phase-out of MTBE use in California.
The fact is, the problem was known by the agency as
early as 1987 – three years before it succeeded in lobbying
Congress for an oxygenate mandate
in the Clean Air Act (CAA) of 1990.
In 1988 EPA notified its regional offices
and state agencies that MTBE was
a growing threat to the nation’s water
supply in its Bulletin, "Cleanup of Releases
From Petroleum USTs [underground
storage tanks]," EPA/530/UST-
88/001, dated April 1998.
In that 1998 warning, EPA said,
“. . . only about 10 percent of U.S. gasoline
contains MTBE.” However, they said
the chemical is already “among the top
50 chemicals produced in the United
States. MTBE is extremely soluble in
water . . . Because of its high solubility,
MTBE is easily transported in groundwater away from
the spill site."
It also noted, “The health effects of MTBE are generally
poorly understood, especially at low levels. It has
been classified as an irritant, a possible central nervous
system depressant and, formerly, as having medicinal
value.” Today, ten years after the CAA oxygenate mandate,
various studies have indicated such diverse effects
as carcinogenic potential and possible testicular degeneration,
but EPA has still not taken action to definitively determine
the health effects of the chemical it touted to reduce
auto emissions.
In spite of the compelling
reasons for ending the use
of MTBE, doing so
without removing the
oxygenate mandate entirely
could cause even higher
gasoline prices and greater
nationwide shortages of
supply than those seen in
the Midwest this summer
BUT LET THE POLLUTION SPREAD
As mentioned at the outset, MTBE is now found in
the ground water of 31 states, even though the oxygenate
mandate applies to only a few densely-populated urban
areas that EPA has ruled out of attainment for clean-air
standards. Illinois and Michigan are good examples of
this paradox, though others are plentiful.
In Illinois, oxygenates are required only in the Chicago
metropolitan area and near St. Louis – and it has been
largely assumed by the public and most elected officials
that the oxygenate used is ethanol, made from corn,
since Illinois lies in the heart of the corn belt.
However, MTBE has been found in the water supplies
of 25 localities throughout the state, leading to the shut
down of wells in several communities.
In Michigan, which has no areas where the use of
oxygenates is required, the state’s legislature found their
MTBE pollution sufficiently widespread to pass a phaseout
of MTBE by June of 2003, which Governor John Engler
signed into law this summer.
The spread of MTBE pollution throughout the country
was made inevitable by three realities of the petroleum
industry which EPA was either unaware or chose to
ignore.
The first is the fact that a refinery can make only one
type of distillate at a time. Therefore, if
it is making a blend stock, or basic
gasoline type, for use with MTBE, it
cannot make, at the same time, a blend
stock distilled for use without MTBE.
Changing from one blend stock to another
is both time-consuming and costly
in an industry that is currently running
at 97 percent capacity.
Secondly, the only way to efficiently
ship petroleum products over long distances
is via pipeline. Pipelines ship
various products, one behind the other,
which creates some co-mingling and
does not permit convenient drop off of
one product here and another there between
closely-drawn geographical areas.
Lastly, pure, unblended ethanol cannot be shipped
through pipelines (according to industry experts), because
it combines with water (always present in pipelines)
and cannot be separated from it (MTBE is a product
of the refining process).
Therefore, in the Illinois-Michigan example, in which
a group of refineries near Chicago produce gasoline for
that area (where oxygenates are mandated) and also produce
gasoline for Michigan, it is inevitable that what goes
into the Wolverine Pipeline to Michigan will often be gaso-
Volume 2 • Number 6 Water Resources IMPACT • 3