MTBE Cleanup Cost Put at $29 Billion

Removing a gasoline additive from the nation’s soil and water supplies will cost at least $29 billion, far more than the federal government is considering authorizing, according to a new study by a Huntington Beach environmental consulting firm.

“There’s no question. We’ve grossly underestimated the cleanup costs,” said Matt Hagemann, a researcher with the company, Komex H2O Science, and a former senior science policy advisor with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for a decade.

Komex did the cleanup cost assessment for several cities, including Santa Monica, that are suing oil companies because their drinking water supplies have been contaminated by MTBE, or methyl tertiary butyl ether.

The chemical was first added to gasoline more than two decades ago to reduce air pollution, and its use became widespread in the early 1990s. It initially appeared to be a silver bullet--a cheap additive that makes gas burn cleaner without unleashing any harmful side effects.

However, further study found that MTBE is a suspected carcinogen and can--even in small amounts--make drinking water smell and taste like turpentine. Last month, a Senate committee authorized spending $400 million in federal funds to clean up MTBE contamination.

Using state, federal and university research data, Komex estimates that at least 500 public drinking-water wells and 45,000 private wells across the country are contaminated with enough MTBE--5 parts per billion--to affect the taste and odor of the water. Cleaning up the wells would cost $2.1 billion, the study says.

Much MTBE contamination, including some in Orange County, originated at leaking underground tanks at gas stations. The study says there are more than 140,000 leaking tanks with significant releases, and it would cost $27 billion to clean them up.

Few outside experts have thoroughly reviewed the Komex study. Matt Small, a hydrologist with the EPA’s regional office in San Francisco, said Komex’s analysis appears to be reasonable. He also noted that the agency is considering a ban on MTBE, which is still widely added to gasoline. In California, MTBE must be phased out by 2003.

Jeff Wilson, spokesman for the Western States Petroleum Assn. in Glendale, said his agency would have to take a significant amount of time reviewing the methodology and other factors before commenting on the cost figure.

However, he noted that “the industry is bound by state, federal and local laws to clean up any constituent in gasoline or their product when they are spilled. . . . When the facts and the cleanup costs are in dispute, that’s why they have the court system to remedy it.”

In some parts of California, including Santa Monica, South Lake Tahoe and Morro Bay, the chemical has tainted the local water supply and increased reliance on expensive water imported from Northern California and the Colorado River.

More than $75 million has been spent on MTBE litigation and cleanup in Santa Monica alone, said Steve Linder, EPA co-project manager of the cleanup there.

MTBE has reached Orange County’s gigantic underground aquifer serving the northern and central parts of the county, but it has not traveled far enough to affect the water flowing from faucets.

Still, county prosecutors have sued several oil companies, seeking millions of dollars in civil penalties from Atlantic Richfield Co., BP Amoco Corp., Thrifty Oil Co., Shell Oil Co., ARCO Chemical Co. and Lyondell Chemical Co.

The suits allege that the firms are responsible for contaminating ground water under 330 gas stations across Orange County. The cases are in the discovery phase, and no trial dates have been set, said Michelle Lyman, a deputy district attorney.