Environmental Group Files Latest Lawsuit in California MTBE Controversy

More legal troubles are piling up in California for methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), the controversial gasoline additive accused of contaminating water across the state. The latest action is a lawsuit by a San Francisco-based environmental group against eight oil companies.

The organization, Communities for a Better Environment (CBE), charged that oil companies knew the dangers of MTBE, but used it anyway. Donald Brown, executive director of Communities for a Better Environment, said the group's legal action seeks to ban MTBE, and would require refiners to pay costs for removing the chemical from water sources.

The San Francisco Examiner described MTBE: "The additive, found to be an animal carcinogen by the Environmental Protection Agency, is soluble in water and has leaked out of storage tanks and into the domestic water supplies in several areas."

The San Francisco Chronicle reported: "MTBE is a rapidly growing threat to the state's water supply. It has leaked from underground fuel tanks and pipelines and from motorboats..." The Chronicle also said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency "considers MTBE a possible human carcinogen."

The lawsuit by CBE, which filed its complaint under California's Unfair Competition Act, argued that oil companies knew of MTBE's dangers and "could have used more environmentally benign oxygenates," according to the Chronicle.

The San Francisco Examiner noted that ethanol is being used instead of MTBE as a clean-air gasoline additive by Tosco Corp., a leading California Refining company, in gasoline sold in three area counties.

The Los Angeles Times reported: "The MTBE issue is being watched particularly carefully in Orange County because residents depend more heavily on ground water for drinking supplies than in most areas of Southern California."

This CBE lawsuit against MTBE is the latest in a series of legal actions in California brought on by reported water contamination discoveries. The City of Santa Monica, forced to close off more than half its water supply because of MTBE pollution, sued oil companies to recover its costs of replacing water. And in May, two lawsuits were filed in Los Angeles by residents of Glenville, CA, against oil companies that sold gasoline containing MTBE.