Auditor jumped gun on MTBE risk, official says

By John D. Cox, Bee Staff Writer Copyright 1998 Sacramento Bee December 24, 1998

A critical state auditor's report about bureaucratic handling of MTBE contamination in groundwater drew a mixed response Wednesday from California's chief drinking water watchdog.

While he agreed with several recommendations in the report that would streamline the state regulatory process, David P. Spath said the report jumped to a conclusion about the risk to public health posed by the gasoline additive.

"They jumped to a conclusion that it's a carcinogen," said Spath, and the assumption colors the auditors' criticism of the pace of the state response as MTBE has turned up in some drinking water supplies in the last few years, most seriously in South Lake Tahoe and Santa Monica.

The auditor's report said that while the state had "ample evidence that gasoline leaking from underground storage tanks is jeopardizing the safety of our drinking-water supplies, it has not acted quickly and decisively to address this potential health hazard."

Earlier this month, however, a state scientific panel commissioned by the state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment concluded that it did not have enough evidence to conclude that MTBE posed a threat of causing cancer in humans.

The panel's findings were consistent with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency guidelines, which list the gas additive as a "possible human carcinogen." Existing studies on the effects of the chemical on laboratory animals are based on inhaling MTBE vapors rather than drinking contaminated water.

Spath said the recent findings support the state's decision in 1996 that the presence of MTBE in some groundwater supplies did not meet the legal definitions of a public health emergency.

"I don't think it's settled yet," Spath said of the public health question. "That's something that may take a longer period of time."

Methyl tertiary-butyl ether, or MTBE, is an additive required in gasoline sold in California to help the state meet federal clean air requirements, but the bitter-tasting, odorous chemical is showing up increasingly in drinking water supplies.

Requested by the Legislature, the auditor's report cited "multiple shortcomings" in the drinking water regulations by the state Department of Health Services division headed by Spath and by the State Water Resources Control Board.

It listed a number of recommendations for improvements in the way the two agencies, and also the California Environmental Protection Agency, monitor and enforce drinking-water safety standards.

"There are a number of points that they made that are valid points," said Spath, particularly recommendations to improve communications among agencies and to bring about timely reporting of drinking-water monitoring data.

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