The Environmental Protection Agency, which commissioned the study, has since the early 1990s mandated addition of the chemical to gasoline sold in downstate New York and eight other metropolitan areas, based on the presumption that it would make gasoline burn more completely. As it turns out, cars are now made with sensors that adjust the oxygen percentage anyway, so the additive only works on cars sold before 1986 or those with broken sensors.
The chemical has increasingly been leaking out of storage tanks and into Long Island's underground drinking water supply, where it is much more difficult to clean up than conventional gasoline. It cost two homeowners $50,000 to clean up a couple of wells that had been polluted with a few gallons of MTBE-tainted gasoline. Locals there are now calling for a ban on the additive.
California's Lawrence Livermore Laboratory found that thousands of the state's shallow monitoring sites had been contaminated. In Glennville, California, MTBE was discovered in a dozen wells serving four businesses and three houses. Residents of one of those homes suffered from various health problems, and saw the value of their home drop from $81,000 to $28,000.
Aside from its environmental drawbacks, MTBE also smells bad, causing nausea, headaches, rashes, diarrhea, and other symptoms in people after refueling their cars. North Carolina's state health department launched a campaign urging drivers to pull over if they became dizzy or faint after pumping gas. Three months after the EPA's mandate was enacted, the State of Alaska disobeyed the mandate and banned MTBE altogether.
