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ENVIRONMENTAL SURVEY UPDATE ARTICLES
BROWNER ANNOUNCES EPA
EFFORT TO TIGHTEN UNDERGROUND TANK RULES
EPA Administrator Carol Browner announced the
agency will tighten underground storage tank rules, following the release of a
blue ribbon panel report on the clean air gasoline additive methyl tertiary
butyl ether (MTBE).
While MTBE has been added to gasoline since the
1970s, it has been a primary component of reformulated gasoline since the
implementation of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. In an effort to reduce
toxic emissions, the Act requires that reformulated gasoline contain two percent
oxygen by weight in areas failing to meet federal air quality standards, and
MTBE is the primary oxygenate available. But after MTBE began showing up in
drinking water supplies in some high use areas, California decided to phase out
use of the substance, and EPA Administrator Carol Browner appointed the panel to
look into the issue.
The panel concluded that the major source of
groundwater contamination was leaks from USTs.
Browner promised that EPA was committed to
"both cleaner air and cleaner water." Browner also promised that EPA
will "improve gasoline leak protection and remediation programs and provide
the states with maximum flexibility under current law that will make it easier
to voluntarily reduce MTBE and use cleaner gasoline with other additives."
The report calls for the implementation of a
package of reforms which include enhanced permitting, design, and system
installation requirement for USTs to minimize leaks; strengthening release
detection requirements for USTs; requiring monitoring and reporting of MTBE in
groundwater at all UST release sites; strengthening efforts to ensure that
non-operating USTs are properly closed; and working with Congress to examine
expanding the universe of regulated tanks.
The panel's recommendations are causing concern
among petroleum industry sources, who say the panel has unfairly targeted USTs
as the cause of the problem, and point to other sources of the contaminant such
as airborne releases resulting from automobile combustion. According to the
source, the petroleum industry is also dismayed at the panels suggestions.
"We've been selling MTBE because EPA required it for the past eight
years," says the source. "It's strange they're now considering a new
round of regulations."
A water utility group estimates that
"utility costs to clean up, prevent and treat water supplies and
groundwater from MTBE could run into the billions." Despite the cost, the
group pledges that the drinking water industry "stands ready to work with
USEPA to formulate an effective implementation strategy."
(Superfund Report - 8/4/99) | 
