MTBE In The Ground Water

I submitted this letter to the Sacramento Bee last week, but it hasn't been published yet - nor is it likely to. Nevertheless, I am outraged that this serious man-made public-health menace is still with us:

I was furious when I read Michael Kenny's letter (the Source of MTBE: January 13, 2003) that appeared to defend the role of the California Air Resources Board (ARB) in pushing the water-soluble oxygenate additive MTBE into California's gasoline in the early 90's. Toxic MTBE has since caused nothing but havoc for ground-water supplies across the state. As Kenny points out, the Bee's columnist Dan Walters made a minor error in his January 5th column (West Sac reflects tunnel vision among California public officials) when he asserted that ARB "decreed that refiners should add 'oxygenates' to gasoline to battle smog": that decree, of course, came from US EPA. But ARB did decide that the oxygenate of choice would be MTBE, not ethanol, and ARB had plentiful technical advice, available well in advance, that MTBE's water-solubility would prove a ground water disaster. And the stuff is STILL in the gasoline! The best ARB can plead is gross incompetence. To have Kenny trying to paper over ARB's role in this massive ground-water toxic dumping (something that would have been criminal if it had been done by anyone else), when he is now being appointed to the Sacramento County Superior Court, is ruinous to Sacramento County's reputation.