Audubon Naturalist Society · Clean Energy Partnership ·

Maryland Conservation Council · Maryland League of Conservation Voters MaryPIRG · Solutions Not Sprawl

Testimony before the House Economic Matters Committee

Maryland House of Delegates

February 16, 2005

HB 960 and HB 205– Banning MTBE

Position: FAVORABLE

HB 660, 374, and 355 – MTBE notification measures

Position: Favorable

The aforementioned groups strongly support any bill that phases out and eventually bans MTBE. We also support seeking an oxygenate waiver from the U.S. EPA in order to do so. This coalition therefore strongly supports HB 960 and HB 205 - both of which would eliminate the use of MTBE by 2010 and 2008, respectively.

We further recommend that the Maryland Department of the Environment seek a waiver from the US EPA for the oxygenate requirement.

MTBE constitutes a great threat to our clean drinking water supply here in Maryland. Recent outbreaks of contamination in Harford and Carroll County illustrate the danger the chemical poses.

MTBE is a possible carcinogen. Long term exposure to the chemical causes cancer in laboratory animals. In the absence of additional data, the EPA has concluded, “MTBE poses a potential for human carcinogenicity at high doses.”

We also strongly support HB 660, requiring the owner of a gasoline underground storage tank to notify specified persons, develop a specified corrective action plan, and perform specified testing and equipment upgrades.

We also support HB 374, which requires notification of owners living within a ½ mile radius of the spill, and HB 355, which requires those owners to pass information of the spill onto users of that water supply as well.

Sincerely,

Neal Fitzpatrick

Audubon Naturalist Society

Gary Skulnik

Clean Energy Partnership.

Mary P. Marsh

Maryland Conservation Council

Susan Brown

Maryland League of Conservation Voters

Brad Heavner

Maryland Public Interest Research Group (MaryPIRG)

Andrea Arnold

Solutions Not Sprawl