Dozens of Fallston residents concerned about the safety of their well water banded together yesterday, urging Maryland to ban a gasoline additive that has contaminated local groundwater.
Organizers held a rally just west of an Exxon service station at Routes 165 and 152 in Harford County, where the state has been investigating a number of vapor leaks of methyl tertiary butyl ether, or MTBE.
"This is really a problem, and we need it banned, just as other states have done," said Pat Schenk, a member of the Greater Fallston Community Association, which organized the event. "But it's not going to happen without a lot of people supporting it and without a lot of public outcry."
But the rally was not a day for angry protests. Instead, it focused on providing educational material, information on letter-writing campaigns to elected officials and information from vendors of clean water treatments.
"It's about education and publicity to keep the word out that MTBE is poisoning our wells," said Steven J. Scheinin, president of the community association. "And in our opinion, the Maryland Department of the Environment and the governor are not doing enough."
In June, residents and business owners in the Upper Crossroads area of Fallston learned that many area wells were contaminated with MTBE, a chemical that replaced lead in gasoline in the 1980s to reduce carbon monoxide emissions from vehicles. Health effects in drinking water are unknown, but even at very low levels it can be undrinkable because of a harsh taste and smell.
State officials have proposed regulations that include frequent testing, double-walled pipes for underground tanks and built-in sensors. But area residents say the proposals do not go far enough, and they want the chemical banned. At least 17 states, including California and New York, have done so.
"Our position is zero tolerance," Scheinin said. "There should be no MTBE in the water at all."
Scheinin spoke at the rally along with Judy Blomquist, the president of Friends of Harford, and Richard Norling of the Maryland Chapter of the Sierra Club.
Exxon tested wells within a half-mile radius and has supplied bottled drinking water and filtration systems to those homes where MTBE was detected in the water. But several residents outside the area have paid to have their wells tested, with varying levels of the additive found.
