Methyl tert-butyl Ether - Legislation and Litigation in The U.S.

Legislation and Litigation in The U.S.

MTBE removal from groundwater and soil contamination in the U.S. is estimated to cost from $1 billion to $30 billion, including removing the compound from aquifers and municipal water supplies and replacing leaky underground oil tanks. In one case, the cost to oil companies to clean up the MTBE in wells belonging to Santa Monica is estimated to exceed $200 million. In another case, the City of New York estimated a $250 million cost for cleanup of a single wellfield in Queens, NY.

MTBE is banned in the US states of California and New York, starting January 1, 2004. As of September 2005, twenty-five states had signed legislation banning MTBE. (A table of state by state information, as of 2007, is available at the United States Department of Energy website.)

In 2000, the U.S. EPA drafted plans to phase out the use of MTBE nationwide over four years. As of fall 2006, hundreds of lawsuits are still pending regarding MTBE contamination of public and private drinking water supplies.

The Energy Policy Act of 2005, passed in the U.S. House of Representatives, did not include a provision for shielding MTBE manufacturers from water contamination lawsuits. This provision was first proposed in 2003 and had been thought by some to be a priority of Tom DeLay and Rep. Joe Barton, then chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee. This bill did include a provision that gives MTBE makers, including some major oil companies, $2 billion in transition assistance as MTBE is phased out over the next nine years. Due to opposition in the Senate, the conference report dropped all MTBE provisions. The final bill was passed by both houses and signed into law by President Bush. The lack of MTBE liability protection is resulting in a switchover to the use of ethanol as a gasoline additive. Some traders and consumer advocates are blaming this for an increase in gasoline prices.

The U.S. EPA currently lists MTBE as a candidate for a maximum contaminant level (MCL) in drinking water. MCLs are determined by the EPA using toxicity data.