Their targets are makers of MTBE, like Lyondell Chemical, and the petro titans ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco and BP, which refine MTBE-laced gasoline.
It doesn't take much MTBE to impart a foul odor to drinking water, but still there is scant evidence that tiny amounts of MTBE pose a health risk.
Exxon, however, is willing and able to go to the mat over MTBE, and hopes to convince a jury that actual MTBE pollution is not as bad as claimed.
FORBES: Big Oil Faces $700 Million Water Pollution Suit In New Hampshire
The oil companies and Lyondell, the largest MTBE maker in the U.S., believed that in cases where large concentrations of MTBE were found, the water authorities should go after those who leaked it.
To prove that MTBE concentrations below the EPA's threshold still made water taste terrible, Summy unearthed documents like a 1983 Shell letter detailing that water was no longer drinkable where MTBE'S concentration was 7 to 15 parts per billion.
"Gasoline containing MTBE is not a defective product, " argues Andrew Langan, a lawyer working for BP.
However, nature provides a microbe named Methylibium petroleiphilum strain PM-1, that eats MTBE.
Summy started representing cities and public water authorities and went after companies that produced MTBE.
The government is considering slowly replacing additives like MTBE in gasoline with ethanol, he said.
Other oil companies have settled MTBE claims with states rather than wage expensive court battles.
FORBES: Big Oil Faces $700 Million Water Pollution Suit In New Hampshire
This despite the fact that studies had already shown how easily MTBE could pollute groundwater.
FORBES: Big Oil Faces $700 Million Water Pollution Suit In New Hampshire
First of all, no independent scientist of repute made broad claims for the safety of MTBE.
Baron admits to "educating" congressmen about MTBE, but insists he has no big stake in the issue.
Oil companies started using MTBE in the 1980s to replace lead as an antiknock additive in gasoline.
The new energy bill tabled in the Senate earlier this year did not contain the MTBE liability protection.
MTBE, an additive mixed with petrol to reduce air pollution, had caused it to leak into water supplies.
The banning of antismog additive MTBE (methyl tertiary-butyl ether) presented a new challenge.
In 1996 the city had to shut it down after recording MTBE contamination readings of 610 parts per billion.
Nevertheless, at least 19 states (see map, p. 176) have moved to ban or limit the use of MTBE in gasoline.
In fact, the federal government mandated in the 1990s that MTBE be blended into gasoline to increase octane and improve combustion.
FORBES: Big Oil Faces $700 Million Water Pollution Suit In New Hampshire
C. trailer park who claimed a nearby gas station owned by Conoco had leaked gasoline containing MTBE that contaminated their water supply.
While the law did not name MTBE, the chemical was a more economical means of oxygenating gasoline than the obvious alternative, ethanol.
The law would not have shielded those who leaked gasoline containing MTBE.
MTBE, also agreed to pay a large share of the clean-up costs.
This, in effect, stretched product liability laws by claiming that oil companies that refined, marketed and sold MTBE-laced gasoline knew it would leak and contaminate water supplies.
They managed to squeeze a provision in the proposed energy bill that passed the House last year, giving MTBE makers and refiners liability protection from defective-product suits.
California won't allow public water utilities to use water containing MTBE with concentrations higher than 5 parts per billion, a standard cheered on by greenies and ethanol makers.
应用推荐