New pressure against gas additive

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The political pressure against the controversial gasoline additive MTBE is rising in the trend-setting state so concerned about environmental issues.

A rally, protesting the use of MTBE, was held at the state Capitol Tuesday as protesters held up signs demanding that Gov. Gray Davis immediately ban the gasoline additive, while across the street at the city’s convention center, the California Environmental Protection Agency heard testimony about the oxygenate.

At the rally, hosted by Sen. Dick Mountjoy, R-Arcadia, Sen. Tim Leslie, R-Tahoe City among others, protesters held up signs demanding the immediate ban of Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether, or MTBE, the gas additive that was introduced into Californians’ gas tanks in the mid-1990s in an effort to create cleaner burning vehicles. One protester at the rally held up a sign that had a plastic skeleton holding another sign that read, “I inhaled MTBEs.”

Also protesting the use of MTBE was Melanie Morgan, a talk show host for KSFO AM 560, San Francisco. Standing before the crowd, Morgan called for a complete ban of MTBE.

“We cannot allow MTBE to be in our water one minute longer!” Morgan exclaimed to the crowd.

Jodi Waters, president of OxyBusters, also attended the rally. After the rally, which lasted less than an hour, she was on her way to the Sacramento Convention Center, where hearings on MTBE were being conducted.

Speaking about the hearing, Waters said, “It is more about ‘when’ we ban MTBE rather than ‘if’.”

Waters explained that the federal Clean Air Act allowed states that had clean air programs before 1960 to opt out of federal mandates requiring the use of oxygenates such as MTBE. Since California is one of those states that had a clean air program prior to 1960, the state could legally ban MTBE’s use, according to Waters.

At the hearings, various state senators were allowed to speak on the issue. One of them, Sen. Leslie, said he had received over 100 resolutions from across the state calling for the ban of MTBE, and he pointed out that in Tahoe alone, 13 water wells have been polluted.

“MTBE has a foul odor, a foul taste, and is polluting our water supply,” Leslie said. “It is nonsensical to clean our air by polluting the water.”

In an effort to get MTBE out of California, Leslie is currently carrying legislation, Senate Bill 272, that would make it a misdemeanor for anyone to sell gasoline containing MTBE.

Sen. Don Perata, (D – Oakland), was also at the hearing and told those who were there that his constituents, which include those in the Calistoga area, are currently more concerned about the quality of their drinking water than anything else. He added that MTBE was even showing up in the San Francisco Bay after treated water had been dumped there.

Mountjoy, speaking at the hearing, mentioned that many states — including New York, Kansas, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Alaska, Florida, and Maine — have found MTBE in there water supply. Some states, such as North Carolina and Alaska, had already banned the substance.

“Anyone with an IQ above room temperature has to know that MTBE has to be banned,” Mountjoy said at the hearing.

Senate Bill 521, written by Mountjoy, authorized the University of California at Davis to perform an unbiased study of the human health and environmental impacts of MTBE. At the hearing, those who participated in the UC study were asked to defend their findings and recommendations about MTBE.

The resulting report from the study recommends a gradual phase-out of MTBE from gasoline in California. The report concluded that technical advances in emission controls and combustion systems of new automobiles, as well as new gasoline formulations, have significantly decreased the air quality benefits associated with the addition of oxygenates in gasoline. Thus, the costs of possible water pollution by MTBE cannot be offset by any corresponding benefit.

Because SB 521 has assigned the California Environmental Protection Agency to collect data concerning MTBE in California, James Spagnole, director of communications at Cal EPA, said that the organization doesn’t currently have a position on the issue, and won’t until sometime after the hearings have concluded.

Gov. Davis has yet to make a decision on the issue as well and must do so within the next 10 days.