President, EPA Take Aim at MTBE

May 1, 2000
The Clinton administration has announced a major step to significantly reduce or eliminate the use of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) in gasoline, but the end result is very much in doubt.

The Clinton administration has announced a major step to significantly reduce or eliminate the use of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) in gasoline, but the end result is very much in doubt.

The additive has been used mostly in reformulated gasoline to meet the 1992 Clean Air Act's oxygenate requirements. Gasoline tank leaks have caused MTBE, a possible carcinogen, to contaminate groundwater in several regions.

MTBE is used in about 85 percent of reformulated gasoline (RFG), which is required in parts of the country with the worst air pollution problems. RFG is used in about 30 percent of all U.S. gasoline.

Carol Browner, Environmental Protection Agency administrator, said the administration would ask Congress to pass legislation to reduce or eliminate MTBE use, preserve RFG's current clean air benefits "by ensuring the use and growth of ethanol and other safe renewables in fuels," and set minimum content levels for ethanol and other biofuels in gasoline.

It's questionable whether Congress will act in the little time it has remaining this year. John Huber, vice president of the Petroleum Marketers Association of America, said, "Everybody wants to do something about MTBE, but the solutions aren't there yet."

As a backstop measure, EPA said it would act under Sec. 6 of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to eliminate use of MTBE in gasoline.

EPA said the law allows it to ban or control any chemical substances deemed to pose an unreasonable risk to the public or the environment. But that regulatory process can take up to three years.

The American Petroleum Institute said, "Elimination of the (oxygen) mandate and an orderly phase down of MTBE would help protect water quality without jeopardizing improvements in air quality provided by cleaner-burning gasolines."

But API questioned EPA's authority to regulate MTBE under the TSCA. And the Oxygenated Fuels Association hinted it would challenge such an action. It said the administration's desire to replace MTBE with ethanol is "a political move that will have disastrous effects on the environment and on gasoline prices."

Robert Perciasepe, assistant EPA administrator, later said Congress should grant the agency clear authority to regulate MTBE.

Meanwhile, the American Water Works Association said it welcomed the phase out, but "remains concerned that the federal government continues to do nothing to clean up existing MTBE contamination."

Meanwhile, a report in the Environmental Science & Technology Journal, which is published by the American Chemical Society, said MTBE may be contaminating up to 9,000 community water wells in 31 states.

The report said the 9,000 wells represented one-third of the wells in states where data was suitable for analysis. It said even if banned, MTBE will continue to threaten wells until 2010 because the compound degrades slowly in ground water.

Runoff Lawsuit

A federal court has upheld EPA's position that it and the states have legal authority to regulate "non-point sources of pollution" in U.S. waterways.

Non-point sources are activities such as runoff from urban areas, agriculture, and timber harvesting that could pollute water.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco issued the ruling, which affirmed the comprehensive scope of the Clean Water Act's total maximum daily load (TMDL) program.

He also found that Congress intended to include non-point source pollution in CWA's water quality standards program, and he noted that non-point source pollution is the dominant water quality problem in the U.S. today.

The court heard a case challenging an EPA decision to put the Garcia River on a list of impaired waterways in California and define the amount of sediment that should be allowed to enter the river from land along its banks.

EPA said although salmon and steelhead once flourished in the Garcia River, excessive sediment from forestry operations now prevents the river from supporting healthy fish.

In March 1998, the EPA developed a TMDL for river sediment, defining the greatest amount of a particular pollutant that can be introduced into a waterway without exceeding the river's water quality standard.

EPA also defined the reductions in sediment needed for the river to meet state water quality standards.

The American Farm Bureau Federation and other agriculture and timber groups filed suit, claiming that the EPA and the states should calculate TMDLs only for pollutants that are discharged from pipes, or point sources.

But the court rejected that argument, holding that the CWA was designed to provide a comprehensive solution to the nation's water quality problems, "without regard to the sources of pollution."

EPA said in California, only 1 percent of impaired waterways failed to meet water quality standards solely because of pollution coming from pipes, municipal waste treatment works, or other point sources. It said 54 percent of California's impaired waterways are polluted by non-point sources exclusively, while another 45 percent are impaired by a combination of point and non-point sources.

Meanwhile, the U.S. General Accounting Office has told a Senate Environment subcommittee that most states lack sufficient non-point monitoring data to assess the quality of their waters in the TMDL process.

Chlorine Suit

Meanwhile, the District of Columbia U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned an EPA rule, saying the agency failed to use the "best available peer reviewed science" in establishing the Maximum Contaminant Level Goal (MCLG) for chloroform, a byproduct of drinking water disinfection.

The council said EPA determined there was strong evidence of chloroform's carcinogencity and assumes, in the absence of data to the contrary, that chloroform could cause cancer at any dose.

It said subsequent toxicological studies prompted EPA to request public comments a year ago on a revised chloroform MCLG of 300 parts per billion.

In the court's opinion, Justice Stephen Williams said EPA's December 1998 rule adopting a zero MCLG for chloroform was "arbitrary and capricious and an excess of statutory authority."

Williams said, "In promulgating a zero MCLG for chloroform, EPA openly overrode the 'best available' scientific evidence, which suggested that chloroform is a threshold carcinogen."

The Chlorine Chemistry Council said chlorine is used in 98 percent of U.S. drinking water systems that disinfect water and has been "widely credited with the eradication of several waterborne diseases such as typhoid and cholera."

Water Reports

The Campaign for Safe and Affordable Drinking Water claims many drinking water systems are failing to give consumers straightforward information about their drinking water.

The Washington, D.C., alliance of consumer, environmental, and public health organizations said 56 percent of the 430 drinking water right-to-know reports that it surveyed met or exceeded federal requirements. But it gave poor grades to the other 44 percent.

The 1996 Safe Drinking Water Act amendments required most water utilities to send annual reports to their customers that describe the drinking water source, contaminants detected, and the health effects and sources of those contaminants.

The group said 44 percent of the reports missed important federal requirements. For example, it said 7 percent failed to list detected contaminants clearly, 4 percent omitted or edited the required warning about susceptibility to drinking water contaminants, and 8 percent did not include possible sources of detected contaminants.

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