New Hampshire’s Attorney General’s office is expected to decide in coming months whether to sue oil companies over MTBE contamination of the state’s water supplies.
Originally put into gas to clean auto emissions, MTBE has polluted thousands of groundwater sources across the country.
One lawsuit against several oil companies is before a jury in California.
Another is going forward in Rhode Island, as correspondent Av Harris reports from Providence.
in the tiny village of pascoag, rhode island, residents noticed a funny taste to their water last summer. it smelled like fuel. the smell grew, and so did health complaints, leading to a shutdown of two public drinking wells that supplied water to some 4000 people. state investigators found more than 50 times the acceptable level of m-t-b-e in the water. they attributed the contamination to a fuel leak at a the local mobil gas station, which has also been shut down. although a cleanup is underway, many residents, like craig waltz, say serious damage was done.
“we’re just down from the mobil station where the spill occurred. the water runs under our property. we started experiencing smells in our home, odors from chemicals around october. come to find out it was benzine from the m-t-b-e that was in the water underneath our property. we’ve been exposed long term to benzine, and we’ve gone to an environmental specialist doctor who’s put us on blood tests every 6 months for 10 years to screen for cancer.” :27
waltz says he and his family had to buy another house and move out. the original property is worthless. (IS WALTZ PART OF THE SUIT? IF SO HOW ABOUT) WALTZ HAS JOINED 26 OTHER pascoag residents IN A suit against exxon-mobil. their attorney is marc bern:
“YOU HAVE A TOXIC CRUD ADDITIVE TO GASOLINE WHICH HAS NOW CONTAMINATED THE WATER OF 100 MILLION PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY. M-T-B-E WAS A DEFECTIVE PRODUCT. BEFORE IT WAS EVER PUT INTO THE GASOLINE, THE MANUFACTURERS OF M-T-B-E, THE GASOLINE COMPANIES, FAILED TO DETERMINE WHETHER OR NOT THAT PRODUCT WAS SAFE FOR THE POTENTIAL CONSUMPTION OF HUMAN BEINGS.” :28
the case follows a similar suit in california in which a jury found oil giants including shell, arco, and b-p amoco (CHECK THOSE NAMES….I DON’T BELIEVE AMOCO WAS PART OF IT) liable for polluting wells near lake tahoe. that trial is now in the penalty phase, and jurors could award damages into the billions of dollars. bern says he’s looking for that size award in the rhode island cases. company documents released in the tahoe case show officials knew the water soluble m-t-b-e had the potential to contaminate groudwater, but withheld that information from the government.
the health effects of m-t-b-e are disputed. the federal environmental protection agency lists m-t-b-e as a possible carcinogen, and studies show connections to cancer in RATS. but there has been no conclusive proof or testing of its effects on humans. exxon mobil spokesman barry wood would not comment on the pascoag lawsuit but says the company is acting responsibly:
“exxon-mobil has a very strong commitment to public health and safety. and we are concerned that m-t-b- e has been detected in sources of drinking water. numerous studies have shown that m-t-b-e does not cause any adverse health effects at the concentrations to which the public has normally been exposed.” :16
but residents of pascoag were exposed to much higher levels, and complained of numerous health ailments. the long term effects to high exposure are not known. but the oil industry is arguing that m-t-b-e, if used correctly, is a safe product. if underground gasoline storage tanks wouldn’t leak, there would be no water contamination or harmful exposure. the responsibility for keeping m-t-b-e out of water therefore lies with the operators of gasoline tanks, they say. but assistant new hampshire attorney general maureen smith finds fault with that logic
“in many cases the source is just the use of gasoline, you know, backyard use. lawnmowers and snowmobiles, it does not always stem from major leaks from underground storage tanks. the companies that chose to put m-t-b-e in gasoline, to the extent that there is information that they knew of the particular problems m-t-b-e could create, may have some RESPONSIBILITY as far as the damages that have occurred.” :26
SMITH SAYS 13 percent of NEW HAMPSHIRE’s groundwater IS contaminated WITH M-T-B-E. SMITH WOULD NOT SAY WHETHER THE ATTORNEY GENERAL’S OFFICE IS PLANNING TO TAKE LEGAL ACTION. BUT THE AG’S OFFICES IS CLOSELY MONITORING THE RHODE ISLAND AND CALIFORNIA CASES. NEW HAMPSHIRE WOULD MOST LIKELY SEEK COMPENSATION FOR EXPENSIVE AND DIFFICULT ENVIRONMENTAL CLEANUP PLUS DAMAGE TO THE GROUNDWATER. OTHER NORTHEASTERN STATES, WHERE MTBE POLLUTION IS PARTICULARLY ACUTE, ARE ALSO CONSIDERING LEGAL ACTION. FOR NHPR NEWS, I’M AV HARRIS, IN PROVIDENCE RHODE ISLAND.
