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Environmental Law

: PA Brownfields Environmental Law

PADEP Tells Storage Tank Advisory Committee that MTBE Standard will Not be Changed

By M. Joel Bolstein

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As a follow-up to my earlier post noting that the CSSAB had objected to the Department changing its mind on adopting a new statewide health standard for MTBE, the Department has now told the Storage Tank Advisory Committee the same thing. Here is what it posted on STAC's web page:

Statewide Health Standard for MTBE

The Department has reconsidered the proposed changes to the Statewide health standards for Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE) since the September 1, 2009 CSSAB meeting and decided not to change the MTBE standards at this time. The current Chapter 250 Statewide health cleanup standard for MTBE is 20 ug/l for groundwater used for drinking water. This 20 ug/l standard is the odor threshold for MTBE as published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the

"2006 Edition of the Drinking Water Standards and Health Advisories" (EPA 822-R-06-013). The Department has decided that the previously considered revisions for MTBE included in the September 1, 2009 draft, which allowed for higher concentrations of MTBE based on health based calculations, would have resulted in unacceptable taste and odor impacts on groundwater used for drinking water.

I understand the competing positions on this issue, and I still believe that there may be some middle ground that could be adopted during the regulatory review process. As noted in my prior post, why not treat MTBE in a manner similar to SMCLs (authorizing remediators to move the point of compliance to the point of first use) for sites where MTBE levels are between 20 ppb and the initially proposed higher standard of 190 ppb? The chief beneficiary of the higher MTBE statewide health standard would undoubtedly be the State's Underground Storage Tank Indemnification Fund. For years, I have marveled at how USTIF continues to remain solvent while other states have completely drained their state indemnification funds. It's my understanding that raising the statewide health standard for MTBE to the level proposed by the CSSAB could potentially extend the life of PA's indemnification fund by several years. Keeping more money in USTIF would mean more remediation projects being funded, and that benefits the citizens of the Commonwealth. Extending the life of USTIF would be a worthy policy goal, and it can probably be accomplished without jeopardizing anyone's water source through raising the MTBE standard.

Full post as published by PA Brownfields Environmental Law on December 17, 2009 (boomark / email).