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May 12, 2008
LIABILITY WAIVER DEFEAT LEADS TO MTBE SETTLEMENT
Late last week, 153 public water providers across 17 states and the largest oil companies in the U.S. announced a settlement over MTBE contamination of water supplies. The companies agreed to pay $422 million to the water systems, as well as 70 percent of MTBE treatment costs for wells that may become contaminated by MTBE in the next 30 years.
Settling defendants in the case include BP Amoco, Atlantic Richfield, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Shell, Marathon, Valero, CITGO, Sunoco, Hess, Flint Hills, El Paso Merchant Energy and Tesoro. ExxonMobil refused to settle and faces the first of numerous trials over MTBE starting in September.
MTBE leaks from underground storage tanks has contaminated hundreds, if not thousands, of wells across the U.S. At extremely low levels, MTBE can give water the taste and odor of turpentine, rendering it useless for drinking, cooking and bathing.
Over the course of three years and two Congresses, AMWA led a coalition that included AWWA, the Association of California Water Agencies other water organizations and public health groups to twice defeat the immunity legislation sought by the companies.
“The companies that produce and distribute MTBE in gasoline spent tens of millions of dollars trying to persuade Congress to give them immunity from water contamination lawsuits,” said AMWA Executive Director Diane VanDe Hei. “Had our coalition of drinking water and public health organizations not successfully defeated their immunity legislation, consumers and municipal governments would have been on the hook to pay for current and future cleanups.”
A key element in the defeat of the liability waiver and the decision to settle were internal oil company documents demonstrating that, prior to adding MTBE to gasoline on a large scale, many of the companies were well aware of the problems MTBE posed to drinking water, but failed to disclose the risk to government regulators or the public.
NEW BILL WOULD SUPPORT WATER SYSTEM CLIMATE RESEARCH
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) recently introduced legislation to establish and fund a new research program intended to help drinking water systems prepare for and adapt to the effects of climate change.
The bill, the “Climate Change Drinking Water Adaptation Research Act” (S. 2970), would direct EPA and the Departments of Commerce, Energy and Interior to work together to create a research program, which would be operated by the Awwa Research Foundation. The legislation would authorize spending up to $25 million annually on the program over the course of ten years.
Specifically, S. 2970 calls for the program to conduct research that will “assist suppliers of drinking water in adapting to the effects of climate change” by investigating areas such as:
- Water quality and quantity impacts of climate change;
- Effects of carbon sequestration on groundwater supplies;
- Water infrastructure challenges resulting from climate change;
- Development of desalination and other alternative supply technologies;
- Regional hydrological basin cooperative water management solutions; and
- Research into improved strategies to communicate to customers and other stakeholders about the consequences of climate change on drinking water systems and supplies.
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THIS WEEK IN CONGRESS
Both the House and Senate are expected to vote this week on the Farm Bill conference agreement that was announced by Agriculture Committee leaders last Thursday. The bill’s Conservation Title would reportedly provide an additional $2.4 billion for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, which offers cost-share assistance to help farmers make environmentally friendly improvements on their land. However, President Bush has promised to veto the bill, and at this point it is not clear whether supporters in the House and Senate will be able to gather enough votes to carry an override.
The House is also expected to vote on a supplemental spending bill to pay for activities in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Senate will take up energy policy legislation in light of rising fuel costs and will also consider a bill to provide labor union protections for public service workers.
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SENATE, EPA ACTION PROMISED ON PERCHLORATE REGULATION
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) Chair Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) last week chided EPA for not moving quickly enough to enact regulations to protect sensitive populations such as pregnant women and infants from potentially unsafe levels of two chemicals found in some drinking water supplies.
At a hearing focused on risks associated with perchlorate and trichloroethylene (TCE) in drinking water, Sen. Boxer said that in June the EPW will mark up her two bills: S. 24, the “Perchlorate Monitoring and Right-to-Know Act,” and S. 150, the “Protecting Pregnant Women and Children From Perchlorate Act.”
S. 24 would require EPA to issue a health advisory for perchlorate within 90 days and to promulgate a final regulation requiring drinking water systems to monitor and report perchlorate levels in their supplies within 120 days. S. 150 would force EPA to quickly set a perchlorate standard for drinking water that “fully protects” pregnant women and children.
Testifying before the committee, EPA Assistant Administrator for Water Ben Grumbles expressed concern that the proposals would interfere with EPA’s process for using the best available science to evaluate chemicals on the Contaminant Candidate List before making regulatory determinations. However, he said that the agency “has placed a high priority on making a regulatory determination for perchlorate” and intends to make a final determination on the chemical by the end of the year. Under questioning, Grumbles said that at this point he does not know what EPA’s final decision will be, saying that there is a “distinct possibility” that it will not be regulated, but also that there is an equal chance that EPA will decide to establish an MCL for the chemical.
HOUSE PANEL APPROVES SEWAGE NOTIFICATION, WATER RESEARCH BILLS
The House Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee last week unanimously approved three bills dealing with public notifications following untreated sewage releases and the impacts of climate change on water resources.
H.R. 2452, the “Sewerage Overflow Right-to-Know Act,” would require publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) to implement systems to monitor the discharge of untreated sewage and to provide timely notification to federal and state agencies and the public of such releases that could potentially impact public health. The bill would require POTWs to notify nearby drinking water systems of overflows that have the potential to “imminently and substantially” impact human health.
The subcommittee adopted an amendment to the bill requiring EPA rulemaking to clearly define the circumstances under which an overflow carries potential, imminent or substantial human health impacts and also added language specifying that POTWs are only required to take “feasible” steps to monitor sewer releases. In addition, the definition of an overflow was amended to exclude sewage backups into private buildings.
The subcommittee also approved two bills to study the future water resource needs of the U.S. and the potential impacts of climate change. H.R. 135 would establish an appointed “Twenty-First Century Water Commission” to review current water use practices and assess future supply and demand needs and conservation strategies. The subcommittee amended the bill to direct the commission to also consider the potential impacts of climate change on water resources as it formulates its recommendations.
H.R. 5770 would authorize $1.5 million for the National Academy of Sciences to complete a two-year study on the potential effects of climate change on U.S. water resources and water quality.
SOURCE WATER PROTECTION WEBCASTS AVAILABLE ON AMWA WEBSITE
A series of three webcasts on sourcewater protection topics produced by AMWA and EPA in 2006 are now available on the AMWA website at
www.amwa.net/cs/SWPwebcasts.
- Webcast One: real-time reporting, raw water monitoring, emerging contaminants, source water protection plans, and long-term monitoring, trends and data sharing.
- Webcast Two: land development and its impact on source water protection.
- Webcast Three: interagency and intercommunity outreach, coordination and partnership campaigns.
NEW E-MAIL BROADCASTS TO MEMBERS
If you did not receive the following e-mails or if they did not display accurately, please contact Eugenia Cadena at 202-331-2820 or cadena@amwa.net.
April 28
Monday Morning Briefing
April 29
April Regulatory Report
April 30
Member-to-Member Inquiry: Watershed Protection Funding
May 5
Monday Morning Briefing
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