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Holt wants DEQ tests on local water sites Fears contamination from gas additives By PAUL FATTIG Jackson County Commissioner Ric Holt intends to request that the state Department of Environmental Quality begin testing local groundwater and lakes for signs of contamination from gasoline additives. Although the DEQ says no significant amounts of MTBE -- the gasoline additive which CBS' "60 Minutes" recently tagged as one of the nation's most critical environmental concerns -- has been found polluting groundwater in the Rogue Valley, it has been discovered in a well supplying water to Keno Elementary School along Highway 66 some 45 miles east of Medford in Klamath County. The school has been using bottled water since Jan. 3. That is ample evidence of a potential pollution problem from gasoline additives that needs to be addressed, said Holt, who for years has been lobbying against the use of the additives MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether) and ethanol. DEQ officials say they are testing wells near underground fuel tanks that have leaked. Those tanks are part of the DEQ's statewide tank removal program. "We already require MTBE data from wells we monitor around sites where we have found leaking tanks," said Merlyn Hough, western region tanks manager for the DEQ. "If gasoline has leaked, then MTBE is one contaminant we look for." While DEQ officials are concerned that the pollution problem not be taken out of context, they agree there is reason to keep an eye on the additives. In Keno, the elementary school began using bottled water after it was confirmed that MTBE was in the groundwater supply, said school principal Ron Bucholz. "They (DEQ) have notified us that it's been found in levels that are higher than acceptable," Bucholz said. The contaminant was found in several other wells in town, according to the DEQ. The agency has installed carbon filters in the school's water system in an attempt to remove the contaminant. The school's well is more than 200 feet deep, Bucholz said. "What they are doing now is experimenting to see if they can remove it," he said, adding that the filtering system will be tested for the next two months. It's not the first time the community has faced water problems, Bucholz said: Benzene was found in the groundwater five years ago. MTBE and ethanol -- grain alcohol -- are the chemical additives typically employed to create oxygenated gasoline used to reduce air pollution from carbon monoxide emissions. MTBEs are commonly used in California; ethanol is used during the winter months in Southern Oregon. The annual change began in the winter of 1992-93. The Clean Air Act that Congress renewed in 1990 requires areas with winter air pollution problems to use oxygenated fuels. Holt, who hopes that Keno is not the first of several Oregon communities to face such a problem, said he will ask the DEQ to test water sources in Jackson County. "I feel vindicated because I've taken a beating so long on this crap," Holt said. "People thought I was crazy. "I've felt like the little guy on the horse with the big stick going at windmills," he added. For half a dozen years, he has been telling anyone who will listen that the two chemicals are bad news to the environment. But it wasn't until the "60 Minutes" report on Jan. 16 that his phone began ringing off the hook. "I got nearly two dozen calls the night the show was on," Holt said. Holt, not normally considered an ally of the Ashland-based Headwaters, has asked the environmental group to join him in the battle against the fuel additives. "This is definitely something we will be watching," said Jim Moore, immediate past chairman of the Headwaters board. "We haven't taken it on as a major issue, but we're very interested in clean water issues." Vehicles stopping at gas pumps in Jackson County and Grants Pass receive oxygenated fuel from Nov. 1 until the end of February. The seasonal switch each winter from standard gasoline to what is commonly known as "oxy fuel" is required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as part of a clean-air program administered by the DEQ. Although ethanol is the additive -- not MTBE -- used during the oxygenated fuel season in Southern Oregon, that doesn't mean there is no problem, as Keno illustrates, Holt said. "It's fair to say we're not using it here, but the problem is the 6,000 or 8,000 vehicles coming into the valley from California each day," Holt said. "We have to assume they are carrying MTBEs. The pollutant coming out of their tailpipes go into our airsheds. "It's been proven that it can be an airborne contaminant. With the inversion we sometimes get in this valley, this stuff hangs in the cloud cover." But Kevin McCrann, head of the DEQ's air-quality program in the northwest region, said that MTBE hasn't been used in Oregon for at least four years. Gasoline used in the state during the winter comes from Washington state and is MTBE-free, he said. McCrann added that DEQ regularly tests gas pumps for MTBE during the winter. California, the nation's top user of MTBE, with about 11 percent of all fuel containing the substance, has banned it by the end of 2002. Last summer, the EPA, in a major reversal of environmental policy, urged that MTBE be sharply curtailed because of worries that it is polluting drinking water sources, he added. "Our problems with MTBE are much smaller than that of California," said Hough, the DEQ's tanks manager. "California does have a serious problem. But the problem is not uniform coast-to-coast" as some viewers may have gathered by watching "60 Minutes," he said. "MTBE can show up any place in the country, including Oregon," he added. "But it's not showing up during wintertime testing now." Holt plans to continue lobbying against the use of both additives. "This stuff is bad news for all of us," he said. "We need to get rid of it." Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA