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What is MTBE?
MTBE stands for methyl tert butyl ether. It is a chemical that is used as a catalyst to release oxygen molecules in gasoline and increase the octane number. When it was discovered that MTBE in gasoline spills could contaminate large areas containing ground water, it was discontinued as an additive to gasoline. However, the environmental damage has already been done.

Online sources estimate that, at least, 200,000 barrels of MTBE were produced in 1999. Storage tanks throughout the United States of MTBE containing gasoline tanks were leaking MTBE from underground gasoline tanks. MTBE was banned as an additive to gasoline; however, MTBE has already contaminated drinking water in many states. Two areas cited are Lake Tahoe and Santa Monica.

Production of MTBE has also declined in Europe, but it is said that MTBE will still be produced and added to gasoline in parts of the world who are not aware of its drinking water contamination properties. The problem is that MTBE is not considered a cancer causing agent although its presence in drinking water can be smelled and tasted. It’s use as a gasoline additive was simply that it allows gasoline to be consumed cleaner and with less knocking that without MTBE and it also lowers carbon monoxide emissions from cars and trucks that burn gasoline.

In 1990, The Clean Air Act was passed to allow for oxygenators like MTBE to be mixed with gasoline because it lowers carbon monoxide emissions. What happened beginning in 1999 was the problem caused by discovering MTBE in drinking water. The Environmental Protective Agency in September of 1999 reported in its Blue Ribbon Panel on Oxygenates in Gasoline the detection of anywhere from 5% to 10% contamination of local drinking water supplies.

In March of 2000, they found that 9000 communities in the United States had drinking water that was contaminated by MTBE. The EPA administrator, Carol Browner, in March of 2000 promised to ban MTBE as a fuel additive. But, the EPA has yet to report on the level of MTBE contamination of drinking water. The problem is that the science done on testing MTBE shows that as a possible carcinogen, large quantities of MTBE must be present in the drinking water that a person consumes.

Aside from the leakage of MTBE into drinking water from leaky underground gas pipes, breathing or touching the additive from gas spills at gas stations or other places where gasoline is used can also be harmful to the individual thus exposed.

MTBE has been scientifically studied since 1979 as a possible carcinogen. Tests on laboratory animals proved that MTBE at high levels of contamination caused lymphomas and leukemias. Breathing MTBE on a constant level caused cancers of the kidneys, liver, testicles and the females uterus. Although subsequent studies showed the increase in kidney cancers and testicle cancers in laboratory rats exposed to high concentrations of MTBE, The International Agency for Cancer Research did not list the additive as a carcinogen. The EPA has followed suit with the IACR, but some communities especially in California are suing to have the gas companies pay to have MTBE removed from their drinking water.