Bush Administration Shelved MTBE Ban

[zimv20]

link (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/elections/sns-ap-fuel-fight,1,7702625.story?coll=chi-electionstop-hed)


WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration quietly shelved a proposal to ban a gasoline additive that contaminates drinking water in many communities, helping an industry that has donated more than $1 million to Republicans.

The Environmental Protection Agency's decision had its origin in the early days of President Bush's tenure when his administration decided not to move ahead with a Clinton-era regulatory effort to ban the clean-air additive MTBE.


The Associated Press obtained a draft of the proposed regulation that former President Clinton's EPA sent to the White House on its last full day in office in January 2001.

It said: "The use of MTBE as an additive in gasoline presents an unreasonable risk to the environment."

The EPA document went on to say that "low levels of MTBE can render drinking water supplies unpotable due to its offensive taste and odor," and the additive should be phased out over four years.

"Unlike other components of gasoline, MTBE dissolves and spreads readily in the ground water ... resists biodegradation and is more difficult and costly to remove."


In Santa Monica, Calif., the oil industry will pay hundreds of millions of dollars because the additive contaminated the city's water supply.


In 2000, the MTBE industry's lobbying group told the Clinton administration that limiting MTBE's use by regulation "would inflict grave economic harm on member companies."

Three MTBE producers account for half the additive's daily output.

The three contributed $338,000 to George W. Bush's presidential campaign, the Republican Party and Republican congressional candidates in 1999 and 2000, twice what they gave Democrats, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Since then, the three producers have given just over $1 million to Republicans.

[wwworry]

MTBE is the stuff that makes your gas stink in the winter and adds a special price to the cost. So you could say that this is a gift to a contributer at the expence of the consumer. Has it ever been any different?

[numediaman]

When it rains, EPA would let waste pour

Plan could boost dumping into lake
By Michael Hawthorne, Tribune staff reporter
Published February 15, 2004

The Bush administration wants to make it easier for cities to release partially treated sewage during heavy rains and snowmelts, a policy shift that could boost levels of disease-causing pathogens in Lake Michigan and other waterways.

Sewage spills into the lake already are a source of E. coli and other bacterial "bugs" that frequently lead to beach closings during the summer. Chicago banned swimming at Lake Michigan beaches 130 times last year; there were 178 beach closings in Lake County.

Under a policy change pushed by the Environmental Protection Agency, municipal sewage plants around the lake and across the country would gain explicit authority during wet weather to skip a required treatment that kills most of the bacteria, viruses and parasites in wastewater.

Some EPA officials have privately fought against the proposal, noting the agency rejected a similar policy in the early 1980s because partially treated sewage may still contain potentially harmful pathogens.

Plant operators and business interests have continued to lobby for the practice, which they call "sewage blending."

[Desertrat]

Thanks for the MTBE update. It had fallen below my horizon. When did this first break? 1995-ish? Santa Monica's water supply problems were rather highly publicized. I had thought EPA was gonna rescind its support of using the stuff. "Clean up the air, dirty up the water."

The issue of sewage which hasn't been fully treated and release into rivers and streams reminds me of an event of 1970, where I first realized that governments have no conscience. Hurricane Celia was supposed to dump rains of up to eight inches in central Texas. So, for three days in advance of the arrival of these rains, the City of San Antonio dumped raw sewage into the San Antonio River. Unfortunately, it didn't rain more than an inch or so; Celia was a rather dry hurricane.

The end result was that the City paid a fine of $3,000 per day. Big deal. That's probably the cost to the City had they done proper treatment...

Austin, the Home of the Environmentally Sensitive, was no better. The anti-growth people managed to kill bond issues for additional sewage treatment facilities. Growth occurred, anyway. The ensuing overload on existing plants resulted in pollution of the Colorado River, to the detriment of all the towns downstream as well as fish and critters.

Maybe that's why in all these political events I'm merely less disgusted with one group than another. They're all disgusting. I guess that's why I moved to where the only "folks" who crap in my water supply are deer and coyotes. :D

'Rat

[Dont Hurt Me]

Another example of Bush looking out for big business and not the american citizen. This guy is so out of touch with whats going on it almost amazing. He even made me do something i had never done as a independent and that was vote in a Democratic Primary. I love Nascar but George is got to go. My biggest fear is how long it will take to undo all the damage he has created.

[IJ Reilly]

Another footnote to the MTBE story: California banned MTBE some time ago, but since then, the state's been required to replace this additive with ethanol. The state submitted a request to the EPA for a waiver from ethanol use on the grounds that the state can meet federal clean air standards without ethanol, and because ethanol actually causes an increase in air pollution during the summer months. The EPA refused to consider the waiver request. The state challenged the EPA in federal court, which found that the EPA had violated the Clean Air Act -- but last I heard, the EPA had not taken the court's decision to heart and still hadn't reviewed California's waiver request.

[wwworry]

Not to mention the medicare provisions that say that states can not bargain with drug producers over cost and can not buy the same drug cheaper from Canada. Talk about a multi-billion $ anti competitive anti consumer give-away.

But that's another thread.

[Dont Hurt Me]

its just one thing after the next, just when you think enough something else comes up like MTBE. I got a big kick out of Bush's special interest commercial against Kerry when Bush had racked up more special Interest money in 4 yrs then Kerrys Entire career. amazing

[zimv20]

Originally posted by numediaman

The Bush administration wants to make it easier for cities to release partially treated sewage during heavy rains and snowmelts, a policy shift that could boost levels of disease-causing pathogens in Lake Michigan and other waterways.

lovely. that's my drinking water.

thanks for posting that; i had missed it.

[pseudobrit]

We've had MTBE leak into the water table around here. It requires a very extensive, costly and largely ineffective cleanup effort.

I forget what the ratio is (if someone knows, I'd like to hear it again), but one drop of this stuff can ruin quite a bit of water, and there's no practical, conventional way to treat it out of the water.