For more information on MTBE Treatment, please contact:

Linda Fiedler
Technology Assessment Branch
PH: (703) 603-7194 | Email: fiedler.linda@epa.gov

MTBE is used primarily as an oxygenate in gasoline fuels to increase their octane rating. The Clean Air Act mandated the use of oxygenates in nine metropolitan areas that have severe ozone pollution and many other areas have voluntarily. Because of widespread ground-water contamination by MTBE, several states have banned its use, and overall production is expected to fall in the future. According to the Toxic Release Inventory for 2001, 3,289,087 pounds of MTBE were released to the air, 63,575 to surface waters, and 4,255 to land; 35,962 were disposed of in underground injection wells; and 23,855 pounds were transferred from the user to off-site disposal.

During the 1990s, the citizens of Santa Monica lost the use of approximately 50 percent of their water supply due to contamination of city well fields by MTBE. In a 2001 fact sheet, the USGS reported that MTBE was detected in about 5 percent of the ground-water samples they had collected across the country. They found that MTBE was most frequently detected in ground water underlying urban areas (14 percent of samples tested) and was likely to be 4 to 6 times more frequent in areas where high use of reformulated gasoline is common. The primary routes of potential human exposure to MTBE are inhalation and ingestion of contaminated drinking water.

An Evaluation of MTBE Impacts to California Groundwater Resources
Anne M. Happel, Edwin H. Beckenbach, Rolf U. Halden.
UCRL-AR-130897, 80 pp, 1998.

Health and Environmental Assessment of MTBE: Report to the Governor and Legislature of the State of California as Sponsored by SB 521
University of California Toxic Substances Research & Teaching Program, Davis, CA. 5 Volumes, 1998.
Contact: Office of the Director of Communications, California Environmental Protection Agency, 916-324-9670

Identifying the Usage Patterns of Methyl tert-Butyl Ether (MTBE) and Other Oxygenates in Gasoline Using Gasoline Surveys
M. Moran, R. Clawges, and J. Zogorski.
American Chemical Society 219th Meeting, San Francisco, Calif., 26-31 March 2000. Preprints of Papers, Vol 40 No 1, p 209-213, 2000.
Contact: Michael Moran, mjmoran@usgs.gov

Interagency Assessment of Oxygenated Fuels
Office of the President, Office of Science and Technology Policy, 264 pp, 1997.

MTBE Contamination in Groundwater: Identifying and Addressing the Problem
Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Environment and Hazardous Materials of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, House of Representatives, One Hundred Seventh Congress, Second Session.
U.S. Government Printing Office, Serial No. 107-108, 82 pp, 2002.

Expert testimony to inform the Committee how many parts of our country are facing MTBE contamination in the ground water and drinking water; how severe the contamination is and a response time frame protective of human health; how MTBE gets into ground water supplies; extent of current local, state, and federal efforts to protect water supplies; and efforts needed to ensure the safety of the environment against MTBE contamination.

MTBE and Other Volatile Organic Compounds—New Findings and Implications on the Quality of Source Waters Used for Drinking-Water Supplies
U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet, FS-101-01, 2 pp, 2001.
Contact: John Zogorski, jszogors@usgs.gov

MTBE?To What Extent Will past Releases Contaminate Community Water Supply Wells?
R. Johnson, J. Pankow, D. Bender, C. Price, and J. Zogorski.
Environmental Science & Technology, Vol 34 No 9, p 210A-217A, 2000.
Contact: David Bender, dabender@usgs.gov

A National Survey of Methyl tert-Butyl Ether and Other Volatile Organic Compounds in Drinking-Water Sources: Results of the Random Survey
Stephen J. Grady.
U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report 02-4079, 94 pp, 2003.
Contact: Stephen J. Grady, sgrady@usgs.gov

Occurrence and Distribution of Methyl tert-Butyl Ether and Other Volatile Organic Compounds in Drinking Water in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic Regions of the United States, 1993-98
S. Grady and G. Casey.
U.S. Geological Survey, Water-Resources Investigations Report 00-4228, 131 pp, 2001.
Contact: Stephen J. Grady, sgrady@usgs.gov

Occurrence of MTBE and VOCS in Drinking Water Sources of the United States
B. Koch, M. Dale, J. Zogorski, G. Delzer, S. Grady, T. Ivahnenko, R. Clawges, and P. Tratnyek.
IWA Pub., London. AwwaRF Report 90954F, ISBN: 1843398605, 214 pp, Dec 2005 [Originally published by AwwaRF for its subscribers in 2003]

Occurrence and Implications of Methyl tert-Butyl Ether and Gasoline Hydrocarbons in Ground Water and Source Water in the United States and in Drinking Water in 12 Northeast and Mid-Atlantic States, 1993-2002
M.J. Moran, J.S. Zogorski, and P.J. Squillace.
U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report WRIR 03-4200, 32 pp, 2004.
Contact: M.J. Moran, mjmoran@usgs.gov

Occurrence and Temporal Variability of Methyl tert-Butyl Ether (MTBE) and Other Volatile Organic Compounds in Select Sources of Drinking Water: Results of the Focused Survey
G. Delzer and T. Ivahnenko.
U. S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report 02-4084, 72 pp, 2002.
Contact: Gregory Delzer, gcdelzer@usgs.gov

A Preliminary Assessment of the Occurrence and Possible Sources of MtBE in Ground Water of the United States, 1993-94
P. Squillace, J. Zogorski, W. Wilber, and C. Price.
U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 95-456, 1995.
Contact: Paul Squillace, pjsquill@usgs.gov

The Quality of Our Nation's Waters: Volatile Organic Compounds in the Nation's Ground Water and Drinking-Water Supply Wells
J.S. Zogorski, J.M. Carter, T. Ivahnenko, W.W. Lapham, M.J. Moran, B.L. Rowe, P.J. Squillace, and P.L. Toccalino.
U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1292, 112 pp, 2006.

Relations Between the Detection of Methyl tert-Butyl Ether (MTBE) in Surface and Ground Water and Its Content in Gasoline
M. Moran, M. Halde, R. Clawges and J. Zogorski.
American Chemical Society 219th Meeting, San Franciso, Calif., 26-30 March 2000. Preprints of Papers, Vol 40 No 1, p 195, 2000.
Contact: Michael Moran, mjmoran@usgs.gov

State Investigation Reports on MTBE
U.S. EPA, Office of Solid Waste, Underground Storage Tanks Program web page.

The 2001 Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Public Data Release Report
U.S. EPA, Toxics Release Inventory Program.
EPA 260-R-03-001, 2003.

Water Quality Impacts of MTBE: an Update since the Release of the UC Report
Malcolm Pirnie, Oakland, CA.
Methanol Institute, Washington, DC. 16 pp, 2001.
Contact: The Methanol Institute, MI@methanol.org

A report prepared for the Methanol Institute challenges assumptions used in the 1998 report, "Health and Environmental Assessment of MTBE: Report to the Governor and Legislature of the State of California as Sponsored by SB 521," regarding the potential for widespread contamination of water supplies by MTBE.

http://www.cluin.org/contaminantfocus/default.focus/sec/methyl_tertiary_butyl_ether_(mtbe)/cat/environmental_occurrence/
Last updated on Tuesday, February 17, 2009
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