EPA URGES ELIMINATING GAS ADDITIVE; MTBE SEEPAGE FOUND TO CONTAMINATE WATER.

Byline: Staff and Wire Services

After receiving a report last week that the smog-fighting gasoline additive MTBE is getting into drinking water, the Environmental Protection Agency reversed course and urged a prompt and significant rollback in use of the chemical.

The methanol-based additive in ``reformulated gasoline,'' used in about a third of the nation's motor fuel in 16 states, once was touted as key to cutting air pollution from automobiles.

But since then, the cancer-causing chemical has been found in drinking water reservoirs that double as recreation lakes, water bodies including Castaic, Piru and Pyramid Lakes in the Santa Clarita Valley area.

Federal research shows the compound causes tumors in rats and may do so in humans. A University of California study concluded that MTBE has affected at least 10,000 groundwater sites in the state. Recently California announced it would ban MTBE use, and Maine state officials pulled out of the reformulated-gasoline program because of concern about MTBE.

Daniel Greenbaum, president of the Boston-based Health Effects Institute, said today that MTBE does not yet pose health concerns. The panel he chaired found only trace levels of MTBE in 5 percent to 10 percent of the drinking water in areas where reformulated gasoline is sold.

``This is not an issue of health and safety,'' Greenbaum said. ``But when you cannot use a water supply because your consumers will not drink it, that is a huge loss to a community.''

EPA Administrator Carol Browner said the EPA ``must begin to significantly reduce the use of MTBE in gasoline as quickly as possible without sacrificing the gains we've made in achieving cleaner air.''

She said the EPA would ask Congress to develop new legislation designed to maintain the reformulated-gas program that has been credited with cutting air pollution from cars, but with an aim toward phasing out MTBE use to protect water supplies.

Both the nation's air quality and its water supply must be protected but ``never one at the expense of the other,'' Browner said in a statement on the findings of an EPA advisory panel on the future of the gas additive.

Robert Perciasepe, EPA's assistant administrator for air and radiation, said any changes to the program must also protect American consumers from fluctuations in gas prices and preserve the use of renewable fuels, such as corn-based ethanol.

The advisory panel, comprising diverse interests from environmentalists to oil industry executives and state regulators, found that while reformulated gasoline has contributed to significant air quality improvements, MTBE poses a growing threat to drinking water.

The panel found that MTBE molecules travel unusually fast through soil and into ground water once gasoline gets into the environment. That can happen through leaks in underground tanks as well as spills while refueling motor vehicles, boats and other equipment such as lawn mowers.

Coinciding with the advisory panel report's release, a coalition of government, environmental and industry groups was to announce today a nationwide education campaign on the need to protect against gasoline leaks and spills.

Each year 9 million gallons of gasoline - the equivalent of a full supertanker - are spilled in the United States from leaks, inefficient engines and carelessness, said the Alliance for Proper Gasoline Handling, the coalition spearheading the campaign.

It was unclear what a change in MTBE use would have on gasoline prices, but some experts expect it may cause increases at the pump as refiners find other ways to reduce toxic chemical releases. It also may boost ethanol prospects because that is one of the major alternative additives for pollution control.

Congress in 1990 required that gasoline sold in areas with severe air pollution contain a higher amount of oxygen so gasoline would burn more completely. Oil companies responded by using MTBE, methyl tertiary butByl ether, a methanol-based additive. While other additives such as ethanol also could be used, MTBE has been by far the widest choice.

Reformulated gasoline is required to be sold in California and 15 other states. Arizona also uses the fuel because the state's gasoline supplies primarily come from California refineries.

The EPA advisory panel, formally called the Blue Ribbon Panel on Oxygenates and Gasoline, concluded that MTBE use in reformulated gasoline ``should be reduced substantially.'' Two of the panel's members recommended it be banned entirely, and the group said Congress should give states clear authority to do just that.

Greenbaum emphasized that the panel does not call for the outright banning of MTBE, but that alternatives to MTBE be more widely brought into use as additives to gasoline to ensure the air quality gains made under the program are not eroded.

Northeast states have been pushing for greater flexibility to ban MTBE in reformulated gasoline. Jason Grumet, executive director of the Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management, said the MTBE experience makes one thing clear: ``We better be pretty careful where we're leaping before we make profound changes in the nation's fuel supply again.''