CONCORD, NH—The state sued 22 major oil companies Monday because of the gasoline additive MTBE, which has been found to pollute a third of the public water supplies in some parts of the state, Gov. Craig Benson said.
The lawsuit, filed in Merrimack County Superior Court, claims the oil companies have added increasing amounts of the additive to gasoline, even though they knew years ago it would contaminate water supplies.
"New Hampshire's groundwater and surface waters are under attack," Attorney General Peter Heed said at a news conference with Benson.
Heed called MTBE "the Houdini of pollutants" because the chemical is water soluble and seems to be able to escape from ground tanks and pipes.
New Hampshire is the first state to sue gasoline companies over MTBE, Benson said, although municipal utilities have sued.
In California, Sacramento County and 10 water utilities filed suit last week against major gas companies over potential MTBE contamination. Utilities in the South Tahoe, Calif., area reached a $28 million settlement with oil companies last year involving MTBE pollution.
MTBE was added to gasoline to cut air pollution, but has been found to pollute water. In 1991, the state agreed with federal regulators to require gasoline suppliers to use additives to reduce air pollution in four southern counties as an alternative to tailpipe emission testing, the lawsuit said.
The oil companies chose MTBE instead of other additives, such as ethanol, that would have caused fewer problems, the suit said.
Former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen asked federal regulators for permission to leave the MTBE program, but the Environmental Protection Agency has yet to decide on the issue.
Senior Assistant Attorney General Maureen Smith said the state has spent millions investigating and cleaning up MTBE pollution and the costs are rising. She would not put a specific dollar amount on the costs or of the damages that the state is seeking.
The state is asking the court to hold the companies responsible for all costs, including investigative and cleanup costs.
"These manufacturers, among other things, have been negligent, have created a public nuisance, have violated our state environmental and consumer laws and produced a defective product and they should be liable for that, " Heed said.
"We are suggesting that the companies that are responsible for the problem should be responsible for the solution," he said.
Initial calls were made to Amerada Hess Corp., ChevronTexaco Corp., Irving Oil Corp. and Gulf Oil Limited Partnership, where spokesmen said they weren't familiar with the lawsuit and needed time to respond.
The state environmental department said MTBE was detected in 15 percent of public water supplies in 2002, including 33 percent of public water supplies in Strafford County.
Heed said preliminary figures for 2003 show that more than 40 percent of public water supplies and more than 60 percent of private wells in Rockingham County are contaminated.
"The problem appears to be worsening," Heed said.
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