New Hampshire’s program to clean up MTBE contamination is getting underway.
The Executive Council has approved funding for an Remediation Bureau, which will begin testing wells and water sources for MTBE contamination. The gasoline additive was intended to help the state address air pollution, but it was banned in 2007, years after the state began seeking damages from companies that produced and marketed gasoline with MTBE because of its effects on groundwater.
Michael Wimsatt directs the Waste Management Division of the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services. He tells All Things Considered host Brady Carlson about the state's plans for addressing MTBE contamination.