MTBE in Gasoline
The Effects on Air and Water
Under the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, numerous areas with poor air quality are required to add chemicals called "oxygenates" to gasoline as a means of improving combustion and, thus, reducing emissions. The most commonly used of these oxygenates is methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE). Portions of 17 States and the District of Columbia have reformulated gasoline (RFG) or oxygenated fuel requirements. A little more than 30 percent of the gasoline sold in the United States is RFG. Of this gasoline, 76 percent contained MTBE in 1997. MTBE generally makes up 11 percent of the total volume of RFG…
