October 10, 2003 

New Schumer study: Special interest sneak attack would let petroleum companies get away with contaminating ground water but make residents in Westchester County pay to cover clean-up Schumer announces plans for new fight to make polluters - not people - pay for MTBE cleanup US Senator Charles E. Schumer today warned that Westchester residents could see their water bills shoot up if a special-interest provision lets polluters get away without paying for the costs of MTBE cleanup. Schumer today announced a new fight to make polluters pay for the cleanup, and promised new legislation to fix the problem if it gets passed into law.

"This may be the single worst special-interest giveaway to polluters that I have ever seen in more than 20 years in Washington." Schumer said. "The idea that we should let the companies whose product literally poisoned our groundwater get away free - and instead force innocent Westchester families to pay for the cleanup - is so incredible and so audacious that words fail to describe it. When my kids were four years old they knew that if you make a mess, you clean it up. If the people who introduced poison into our wells and aquifers think they can getaway without a fight, they have another thing coming," Schumer said.

The so-called "Safe Harbor" proposal would add language to the Energy bill that would make residents pay the cost to clean up methyl tertiary-butyl ether, which is better known as MTBE. MTBE is a potentially cancer-causing chemical that was added to gasoline beginning in the 1990s. When gasoline containing MTBE was spilled or leaked out of underground storage tanks, it poisoned underground water systems.

Despite State and County efforts in the mid-1990s to rid neighborhoods in Westchester of MTBE, the additive remains in the groundwater, and less than 12 percent of MTBE spills have been cleaned to the state's own standards. In one neighborhood, Pound Ridge, residents sued Royal Dutch/Shell oil company and settled for an undisclosed amount to make up for the loss in their property values. But there has been no permanent solution or removal of all the pollution.

The "Safe Harbor" provision would prevent petroleum companies from having to pay a cent to clean up the damage their toxic product created by making a blanket declaration that no chemical that gets added to gasoline as part of the energy bill's ethanol mandate, or MTBE can ever be considered a "defective product" in a court of law, even if the chemical is classified as a carcinogen.

MTBE came into wide use after changes to the Clean Air Act in 1990 required that reformulated gasoline containing an oxygenate be sold in areas like New York with poor air quality. When MTBE leaks out of an underground storage tanks and into an underground drink water system, the poison does not break down, moves through the water quickly, and makes the water smell and taste like turpentine. While the nonpartisan US General Accounting Office has detected MTBE in groundwater and drinking water in every state in the US, the problem is particularly acute in Westchester, where residents rely on the ground for much of their drinking water. In New York State alone there are 1,715 MTBE spills.

Oil and gas lobbyists got the so-called "Safe Harbor" provision added into the US House version of the Energy bill expressly to prevent court decisions that would hold oil companies liable for MTBE poisoning. Eighteen months ago, a California jury found "clear and convincing evidence" that three major oil companies acted "with malice" and were liable for polluting ground water with MTBE. During the case, plaintiffs uncovered internal industry documents showing companies had known for years about the dangers of MTBE while they still were promoting its use.

Schumer and other Senators prevented similar language from being added into the Senate Energy bill this summer. But as members of the House and Senate meet to work out compromise legislation that will be voted on in each chamber before being sent to President Bush for his signature, it appears likely that the "Safe Harbor" provisions may be included.

Schumer released new data today showing that there are 98 MTBE spills to clean up in Westchester County, at an average cost of $500,000 per spill, or a combined total of $49 million. Schumer noted that regardless of whether residents get their water through private or public supplies, they cost of the cleanup will be shifted to them: private well recipients will have to pay directly for the cleanup, and public supply recipients will see increased rates to cover the cost.

Schumer and several other Senators are writing this week to the leaders of the Conference Committee arguing that the American people are strongly in favor making polluters pay for MTBE cleanup. They cited a Zogby poll last month that found that 86 percent of the American people favor holding oil and petrochemical companies responsible for paying to clean up the MTBE pollution. Schumer also said today that if the Safe Harbor provision is passed into law, he will introduce legislation specifically to undo the provision.

"Lobbyists could sneak language into a huge bill declaring that the sky is green or that up is really down, but that doesn't make it true," Schumer said. "MTBE is a poison that threatens the water we use to drink, cook, and bathe in. No two-paragraph statement in a piece of legislation is going to change that truth, and I'm not going to let Big Oil push these cleanup costs onto Westchester homeowners without a fight."

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