What's New
In a victory for clean water, Rhode Island has adopted a new law,
signed by Gov. Carcieri, that bans MTBE-infused gasoline from being
sold in pumps across the state. Safer additives like ethanol will now
be used statewide.
MTBE is bad news for our drinking water because it moves quickly
through soil and into groundwater. MTBE is listed by the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) as a possible carcinogen. It also leaves water
tasting like turpentine. MTBE has been found in groundwater in 23 of
Rhode Island's 29 cities and towns.
Background
MTBE is not a new threat to our drinking water supply. In recent
years thousands of pages of internal industry documents and sworn
depositions have shown that the MTBE industry was well aware of the
hazards of MTBE by the early 1980s. Despite this knowledge, MTBE has
been widely used in gasoline across the country.
Due to its
chemical composition, MTBE dissolves easily in water and does not
"cling" well to soil, allowing it to migrate faster and farther in the
ground than other gasoline components.
This makes MTBE more
likely to contaminate public water systems and private wells than most
other gasoline components. MTBE can render water undrinkable because of
its harsh, turpentine-like taste.
In 2001, Pascoag residents
were told not to use their tap water for drinking, food preparation or
bathing for four months because MTBE had contaminated their water
supply.
As is common with many chemicals in widespread use, very
few studies have examined the effects of MTBE on human health. There
have been reports of nausea, vomiting, dizziness, headaches, and eye,
nose and throat irritation following exposure to MTBE.
Long-term
exposure to MTBE causes cancer in laboratory animals, among other
effects. In the absence of additional data, EPA has concluded, "MTBE
poses a potential for human carcinogenicity at high doses."
In a
victory for clean water, Rhode Island has adopted a new law, signed by
Gov. Carcieri, that bans MTBE-infused gasoline from being sold in pumps
across the state. Safer additives like ethanol will now be used
statewide.
