Harford Del. Barry Glassman is drafting a House resolution that would ask the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to prohibit the use of MTBE in Maryland's fuel supply.
Glassman, a Republican and leader of the county's legislative delegation, said the resolution would be the most appropriate way to address the problem of MTBE, or methyl tertiary butyl ether, since federal requirements authorize use of the potentially carcinogenic chemical under the Clean Air Act. In 1990, that legislation required the use of oxygenates in gasoline to help the fuel burn more cleanly and reduce pollutants emitted from motor vehicles.
Local concern for the gasoline additive grew when investigators found early last month that an MTBE leak in the Upper Crossroads section of Fallston had contaminated wells there. Since then, at least 84 properties have been found to have the chemical present in their wells. Although no leak has been found at the Exxon station at Routes 152 and 165, environmental officials have said they believe that it is partly responsible for the problem.
Since the MTBE contamination was discovered, area residents have been drinking bottled water, and some have installed filtration systems, paid for by Exxon Mobil.
Glassman said he is most worried by MTBE's possibly carcinogenic qualities.
"I do not think the state can act unilaterally to ban MTBE," Glassman said. "We need to get the requirement removed at the federal level first."
But Richard McIntire, spokesman for the Maryland Department of the Environment, called Glassman's proposed request "fairly difficult to do."
Because the state does not have refineries, and consequently depends on oil produced in the Mid-Atlantic region, removing MTBE from Maryland's fuel supply could mean having to transport fuel from across the country, he said.
Sixteen states have banned or restricted the gasoline additive in their fuel supply, with New York being the closest to Maryland.
"It raises a lot of issues," McIntire said. "It creates transportation questions of trucking the oil. It raises the question of what we would use to replace MTBE. And it would extremely raise gas costs if Maryland were to stand by itself in the Mid-Atlantic region."
Congress has been mulling a nationwide phase-out of MTBE as part of a bill setting new federal energy policy, but has been unable to agree on the measure.
