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Years later, MTBE still a danger to water supply

Posted by: Maven on February 19, 2010 at 8:01 am

From KGO TV:

“The additive MTBE was supposed to help air pollution by making gasoline burn cleaner in our cars, but it fouled water supplies across the state. Years after it was banned, we are still feeling the effects.

MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether) was supposed to help clear air pollution by making gasoline burn cleaner. But as the I-Team showed you in the mid-90s, it ate away rubber fuel lines in cars, leading to fires and recalls. But, MTBE was not banned until the suspected carcinogen started showing up in drinking water.

“It is simply unacceptable to clean the air by polluting our groundwater,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said in 1999.

Seven years after the ban, we are just beginning to understand the magnitude of the problem — groundwater contaminated by MTBE, wells that supply drinking water to the public, knocked out of service.

“On the order of 200 public supply wells in California have been affected by MTBE to the point they’ve had to be taken offline,” UC Davis Hydrologist Graham Fogg said. … “


Continue reading this story from KGO TV by clicking here.

February 19, 2010 · Filed Under Drinking Water & Bottled Water

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