FRIDAY
FEBRUARY
19
1999
California
senators push for ban of MTBE Gas additive which forced the closure of water supply
systems
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_exnews/19990219_xex_california_s.shtml
By
Stephan Archer
© 1999 WorldNetDaily.com
SACRAMENTO, Calif -- State
senators plan to protest the use of MTBE and to persuade Gov. Gray Davis
to ban the gasoline additive that has caused the closure of dozens of
drinking water supply systems throughout the state.
Methyl
tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) was first introduced into Californians' gas
tanks in the early and mid-1990s in an effort to lower car emissions and
reduce air pollution. But since its introduction in the state, more than
10,000 wells, lakes and reservoirs have been polluted with the
substance.
Sen. Tim Leslie, R-Tahoe City, along with his
colleagues, Sen. Dick Mountjoy, R-Arcadia, Sen. Don Perata, D-East Bay,
and others will be meeting on the south steps of the state Capitol next
Tuesday to rally
for an immediate ban of MTBE. All three senators are
currently carrying legislation to make MTBE use unlawful in
California.
Leslie's legislation, Senate Bill 272, says, in part,
it would "make it a misdemeanor for any person to sell gasoline
containing MTBE." It also makes the following statements about MTBE:
•MTBE is highly soluble in water and will transfer readily
to groundwater.
•MTBE is capable of contaminating water
resources faster than any other gasoline component and has been detected
in California's drinking water wells, groundwater, and surface
water.
•It is clear that California is placing its limited water
resources at risk by using MTBE in gasoline.
•MTBE is an
animal carcinogen with the potential to cause cancer
in humans.
•MTBE jeopardizes the safety and availability
of California's water supply and is clearly a public health
threat.
•The cost of treating MTBE-contaminated drinking water
sources in California could have a severe impact on state
funds.
Leslie's bill also states that studies
have shown that no significant air quality benefit has been found in the
use of MTBE.
"A recent University of California study
concluded that MTBE provides no significant benefit to air quality yet
has the potential to cause great harm to our state's water supply,"
said Leslie. "Common sense dictates
that we take immediate and
necessary measures to protect the quality of our state's drinking water
and the health of Californians. MTBE must go."
The
study being referred to is one the University of California was directed
to conduct after former California Gov. Pete Wilson signed into law
Mountjoy's Senate Bill 521 Oct. 8, 1997. This bill enacted the
MTBE
Public Health and Environmental Protection Act of
1997.
Leslie said that next week's rally will also coincide with
a public hearing at the Sacramento Convention Center where the
California Environmental Protection Agency will hear testimony pertaining
to MTBE.
The state's governor must decide whether or not to prohibit MTBE
use in California within 10 days of the public hearing. Currently, the
governor has no official position on the issue.
It is
Leslie's hope that the rally and the public hearing will encourage the
governor to ban, or phase out, MTBE. If he doesn't, Leslie and others
plan to move forward with their bills to ban the
substance.
"Kick MTBE out of California, and do it
now!" exclaimed Leslie. Besides California, other states --
including Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire and New York -- have proposed
legislation that would ban MTBE.
In Alaska and part of Montana, MTBE has
already been banned due to motorists' complaints of health problems
including sore throats, nausea and trouble with breathing. North Carolina
also banned MTBE, but the state's action was due to the additive's
classification as a probable carcinogen in people.
Besides
being detected in the California water supply, MTBE has also been found
in 137 water supplies across New Hampshire, dozens of wells in
Connecticut and various other water supplies across the U.S. In
Texas,
for example, some state and local officials are concerned that MTBE
pollution in their state's water supply may force them to shut down some
of the water wells in their
state.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
RELATED
STORIES:
•High cost of controversial gas additive •Why California
mandated poison in your tank
FRIDAY
JULY 18, 1997
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_exnews/19970718_xex_high_cost_co.shtml
MTBE
High cost of controversial gas additive MTBE doesn't clean air,
has negative
effects
------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Stephan Archer
Copyright 1997
WorldNetDaily.com
Although gasoline addictive MTBE is now being
mandated in fuel sold all over the United States to reduce harmful
emissions, leading scientists agree that, in reality, the only thing it
is reducing is the amount of
green stuff in consumers'
pocketbooks.
Dr. Joel Kauffman, professor of chemistry at the
Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, says MTBE seems to have
little or no effect in reducing carbon monoxide emissions. The reason? No
oxygenate can clean
the air, according to Kauffman, because cars are now
equipped with oxygen sensors and catalytic converters that regulate the
amount of the
engine.
"There's no way that an oxygenate can fool a modern
engine into burning cleaner," Kauffman said.
Kauffman
added that with oxygenated gasoline, people are now paying more money for
gas because oxygen, which engines naturally take freely from the air, is
now being added to gasoline at a cost to the consumer. He
also stated
that the increase in oxygen in fuel is what is causing the decrease in
gas mileage because less of what you fill up with is actually
gasoline.
Worse yet, says Dr. Myron Mehlman, editor of the
journal Toxicology and Industrial Health, MTBE does not help clean the
air.
"There is no evidence that MTBE is helpful to the
environment," he states unequivocally.
So why has the
federal government approved the use of MTBE? The Environmental Protection
Agency oxygenate sees things differently.
"MTBE is not
supposed to clean the air," says Dave Kortum, group manager in the
Environmental Protection Agency's Department of Fuels and
Energy. "We would prefer that there was no MTBE in the air -- just
carbon,
oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide which is what the air is made
of, but adding MTBE to gasoline would be changing the composition
of gasoline in such a way that NOx [nitrogen oxides] emission and
VOC [volatile organic compounds] emissions are positively effected, and
that does help the air."
Kortum concedes that the
issue of reduced carbon monoxide emissions, which is supposed to be a
function of MTBE in reformulated gasoline, is one in which there is
currently a lot of disagreement.
And there's plenty of
disagreement from the experts. Kaufman, for instance, says MTBE is
actually increasing NOx emissions making it harder for cars to pass smog
checks and, thus, costing the consumer more
to get their cars fixed.
Kauffman also said that MTBE itself is a VOC which, when mixed with NOx,
helps produce ground-level ozone.
Dr. Peter Joseph, professor of Radio logic Physics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine,
says federal and state governments are missing the point by mandating
oxygenates such as MTBE.
"I really think that CO [carbon
monoxide] is being greatly exaggerated in terms of its ability to do harm
at its present level." He thinks something else, possibly formic
acid, which he believes may actually be
produced from fuels with MTBE, is
the real problem. Formic acid is known to be extremely irritating to the
respiratory system.
The EPA's Kortum also concedes that MTBE is
leeching into the water supply as many critics have
charged.
"We recognize that's a real problem, and a lot has
to be done there to address this problem," he
said.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_exnews/19970725_xex_why_californ.shtml
||||
FRIDAY
JULY
25,
1997
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
MTBE
Why California mandated poison in your tank In name of
environment,
known carcinogen added to
gas
------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Stephan Archer
Copyright 1997
WorldNetDaily.com
SACRAMENTO -- The California Air Resources
Board ignored warnings from the Environmental Protection Agency that
gasoline additive MTBE might be carcinogenic before requiring it in every
gas tank in the state.
Since the passage of the state man date
last summer, MTBE has been used across California as an additive in
gasoline to oxygenate the fuel for "cleaner burning." Yet,
there is no proof the additive, which is now
being used in many other
states, results in reduced air-pollution levels.
"At
the time that the regulation was passed, I think that we were aware that
it might be carcinogenic and that it could have some other
health effects," recalled Dr. Andrew Wortman, the engineer-scientist
of the
California Air Resources Board from 1983 until January of 1994. He
later added, however, that the board never thought that levels of MTBE in
the environment would ever reach a point that would adversely
affect
people's health. Wortman also stated that he thought that the
board knew even before MTBE usage became mandatory in the state that the
chemical wasn't healthy for people.
According to Wortman,
the main reason that the California Air Resources Board passed the
resolution was because of political pressure.
"This thing
was rigged from the first time that it was mentioned," he said.
"The chair kept banging on me that the governor insisted on passing
it."
The chairwoman at the time was Jananne Sharpless.
According to Wortman, Sharpless, one of the few people on the board
reappointed by Gov. Pete Wilson, was given a position on the Energy
Commission by the governor as an award for her efforts in getting the
MTBE resolution passed.
To help get the resolution passed, the
Air Resources Board picked favorable data supporting MTBE and threw out
the rest, said Wortman. "The Air Resources Board staff
selectively threw out all the data they
didn't like," Wortman
said.
One of the main ingredients of MTBE, isobutylene, is a
by-product of refined crude oil. Referring to isobutylene, Dr. Myron Mehlman, an adjunct professor of public health at the Robert Wood Johnson
Medical
School and editor of Toxicology and Industrial Health, said the
stuff wasn't worth much by itself but when used to make MTBE, its
value increased. "There is a big economic advantage
in using isobutylene to make MTBE," Mehlman said.
The
economic advantage, according to Wortman, is that the chemical is cheap
because it is a by-product of refined oil. Thus, processing it into MTBE
would also be cheap, saving the oil companies a significant
amount of
money. Wortman pointed out there was one problem with the plan to
save money by
using isobutylene to make MTBE. It would cost oil companies
an estimated $5 billion to redesign refineries for the production, and
all but one of the oil companies in California were, at first, against
its use.
The one company in favor of the plan was Atlantic
Richfield Company. It didn't cost ARCO anything because the company
already had the facilities to make MTBE. In fact, it was ARCO which gave
the California Air
Resources Board its reformulated gas as a surrogate
for testing emissions.
"ARCO was lying on their side
that it was such a wonderful thing and that it would finally clean up the
air," Wortman said. "They didn't have a shred of true
scientific evidence, though. They just had a cheaper way
of making
gasoline than anybody else."
In Sacramento, many legislators
are concerned about the lack of research done concerning MTBE's effects
on the environment and people. Some officials, including Sen. Richard Mountjoy, R-Arcadia, are even
attempting to rid the state of
MTBE. In
Senate Bill 521, which he and others brought to the floor of the state
Senate Feb. 24, he asked that MTBE be banned from the state of
California.
Since the bill's introduction, however, it has been
amended beyond Mountjoy's recognition. Among other things, the revised
legislation would require a lengthy study of MTBE and postpone
indefinitely any ban
on the chemical. The amended bill would also take
away the responsibility of cleaning up the chemical from those who
produced it and hand it over to the taxpayers.
Mountjoy
wants an immediate ban of the chemical in California and wants the oil
industry to take responsibility for cleaning up the
state. Various doctors from around the nation, oil companies,
water districts,
and utility districts have researched MTBE and looked
into the dangers which Mountjoy and others are concerned about. Here is
what they found.
According to a state Air Resources Board
official, the reformulated gas cut smog-forming emissions by 14 percent
and cut benzene emissions by 50 percent, which, therefore, cut gasoline's can cancer risk by 30 percent.
However, in a letter to Sen.
Mount joy,
Dr. Michael Lambert of San Jose State University said, "MTBE
actually causes a slight increase in nitrogen oxide, which is the m major
component of smog. ... This clearly
demonstrates that MTBE is causing
significantly more harm than good." Besides releasing more
nitrogen oxide into the air, MTBE emissions release other dangerous
chemicals into the air. In his letter to Mountjoy, Lambert pointed out,
"MTBE significantly increases two of three known hazardous organic
compounds, which are carcinogenic and known to cause and exacerbate
respiratory illnesses." These organic compounds are known as
aldehydes and ketenes. One of the better known aldehydes which MTBE
emissions release into the air is formaldehyde.
MTBE can't
reduce smog because, along with fuel injection, most cars since 1984 had
an additional device installed in their exhaust manifold called an oxygen
sensor. The oxygen sensor regulates the amount of gas
to be released by
the injectors so that a cleaner burn will result. Dr. Joel M. Kauffman, a
professor of chemistry at Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science,
said that these oxygen sensors "will hold the concentrations of the
usual pollutants to fixed (and desirably low) levels regardless of the
composition of the gasoline."
MTBE gets into our rivers,
lakes, reservoirs, and groundwater many different ways including
precipitation (from air pollution), storm water runoff, surface spills
such as at gas stations, and leaks of underground storage tanks and
pipes. Once in the water, it is hard to remove it because it is highly
soluble. According to an executive summary from Mountjoy's
office, MTBE has been found in California's drinking water, including
places such as Santa Monica, Marysville, a private water well in Elmira,
and South Lake Tahoe wells.
MTBE has also been found in
many reservoirs across the state including Shasta Lake, Anderson
reservoir (Santa Clara Valley Water District), Modesto Reservoir, Castaic
Lake, San Pablo reservoir (San Francisco Bay Area), and Lake Havasu.
Other authorities report that MTBE has been found in
drinking water. A California Environmental Protection Agency report
states the following: "As of June 6, 1996, five major oil companies
submitted MTBE residue
data for a total of 245 sites in 24 counties.
About 76 percent of the sites reported detectable MTBE in one or more
monitoring wells."
Walt Wadlow, assistant general manager of
the Santa Clara Water District said there is no biological or chemical
breakdown of MTBE in water and it migrates at the speed of groundwater.
This means that although MTBE is being discovered largely in shallow
groundwater reservoirs, it could easily be found in deep wells and
springs as well.
Those who have been exposed to MTBE through
contact with gasoline have complained of extreme headaches, vomiting,
diarrhea, fever, cough, muscle aches, sleepiness, disorientation,
dizziness, and skin and eye irritation. There is evidence that MTBE may
also cause cancer in humans.
"MTBE causes the same cancers
at the same levels in laboratory animals as benzene, a known human
carcinogen," said Mehlman, who later concluded that MTBE is,
therefore, a probable human carcinogen.
In a letter to Carol
Browner of the EPA during December of 1996, Mehlman wrote about the
possible human carcinogenic effects of MTBE in water. "MTBE in water
poses a risk of death from various cancers, and
therefore, exposure to
this dangerous chemical should be avoided in order to avoid needless and
preventable cancer risk to humans," he said. Mehlman also
said that MTBE contamination in water causes all kinds of neurological
illnesses and can also form rashes on the surface of
the skin.
Asthma is a health problem that seems to be
aggravated by MTBE pollution. Although the EPA reports that incidents of
asthma have decreased, Dr. Peter Joseph, professor of Radiologic Physics
at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, says they have
actually increased by 50 to 100 percent. The asthma incidents, Joseph
said, began to increase after 1979 when MTBE was first used at smaller
levels.
Because of such potential health hazards, some areas of
the country are taking action. For example, Alaska discontinued the use
of MTBE in its gasoline. North Carolina also discontinued use of the
additive.
But health is not the only concern. According to a
Chevron technical bulletin, there is a potential for fuel leaks in cars.
Texaco reported the same thing.
"In a very small
percentage of older, high-mileage vehicles, it is possible that RFG
[reformulated gas] could cause changes to rubber components in certain
engines that may result in fuel leaks," an These fuel leaks can result in an increase in car fires.
Alex Bess, a Santa Clara mechanic who has seen more repairs where gas
lines and seals have to be replaced told the Associated Press that these
leaks are dangerous. "The whole engine can catch fire," he
said.
Mehlman has one other major concern. He says MTBE has been
known to cause drowsiness in drivers.