Newspapers should use coverage of reformulated gasoline to at least alert their readers to the actual, documented health hazards associated with MTBE. Other available literature on MTBE raise concerns about it triggering asthmatic reactions in some people, which gasoline doesn't do, and MTBE being a suspected carcinogen. The theory behind using MTBE is to clear the air and stop people from gasping for their air, isn't it? They should at least be warned so they can take reasonable precautionary measures.
Currently, federal regulations require reporting to the National Response Center of an MTBE spill of even one pound. Although MTBE has been in use only a few years, clean-ups of leaks of MTBE from underground storage tanks in Santa Monica will cost that city many millions. Arizona already lags far behind in cleaning up its gasoline fuel leaks, and once the MTBE is in our groundwater, we will be in for an even more enormous taxpayer expense. MTBE cannot be bioremediated--microbes do not consume it as they do other gasoline and diesel contaminants in the soil and groundwater, so a cleanup of MTBE would be costly and very lengthy. The fact that there is already widespread groundwater contamination throughout much of Phoenix from a variety of other contaminants like TCE only makes a potential MTBE cleanup more difficult and expensive.
In some of the other states besides Arizona, there is also plenty of press coverage regarding the lower gas mileage associated with MTBE and questioning if burning more fuel, even if oxygenated, to get the same gas mileage negates MTBE's benefits. We would do far better in cleaning up our air to encourage conversion to Compressed Natural Gas instead of trying to reformulate the fuel that produces half of our air pollution.
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