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# Shell announces an end to MTBE in its Calif. gas
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/shell-announces-an-end-to-mtbe-in-its-calif-gas/
- Published: 2002-06-13T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T00:19:51.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Business, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*City suing company for contaminating its wells*

*By staff and wrire reports*

SACRAMENTO — Shell Oil said Wednesday it will stop using MTBE in the gasoline it sells in California by year’s end, beating Gov. Gray Davis’ extended deadline by a year.

Davis pushed back the deadline to Jan. 1, 2004, in March, saying the phase-out could produce gasoline shortages and drive prices as high as $3 a gallon because there are only seven ethanol suppliers in the country.

But the Renewable Energy Action Project, a coalition of environmental groups, had predicted Shell and other suppliers would act by year’s end after BP, the state’s largest provider, announced last month it would end its use of the additive by Davis’ original deadline of Dec. 31, 2002.

Shell is the state’s second largest supplier with about 18 percent of the market. Together with Phillips Petroleum Co., which also announced an early switch, the three companies account for about 55 percent of California gasoline sales.

“We feel certain that the necessary supply of ethanol is available,” Shell Oil Products US President Rob Routs said in announcing the company’s decision. He said Shell is “working diligently” with regulators and within the petroleum industry to make sure there’s an adequate supply of ethanol by year’s end.

“The governor wants to get rid of MTBE completely and put forward a deadline for Californians not to be hit hard at the gas pump by price hikes,” said Davis spokesman David Chai. “If they can meet the deadline early and pass along the price breaks they got to California motorists, we’re in favor of that.”

Methyl tertiary-Butyl Ether is a colorless chemical that at very low concentrations smells like turpentine and is a suspected carcinogen. It is added to gasoline to help cut air pollution.

Six years ago high levels of MTBE contamination was found in seven of Santa Monica’s 11 wells.

Early tests found that the water at five of the city’s largest water source — the Charnock Wells —contained more than 600 parts per billion of MTBE. The other two wells — known as the Arcadia Wells — contained 86 parts per billion. The state has determined that water must contain less than 5 parts per billion before it is safe to drink.

The pollution closed the wells, forcing the city to import nearly 80 percent of the 12 million gallons of water it uses each day. “MTBE is a tricky chemical,” the city’s utilities manager Gill Balboa recently said. “It finds its way into the ground water easily, it moves through the aquifer very quickly and it is very difficult to remove.”

Santa Monica is suing Shell and 17 other makers and refiners of MTBE and MTBE-laden products for poisoning its drinking water supply. The amount of damages and the cost of building a water treatment center is estimated will be several hundred million dollars.

Until the ground water is cleaned, the oil companies are paying $3.5 million a year to import drinking water to the city.

Though the oil companies were successful in moving the trial to an Orange County court, the city has won every challenge to its lawsuit. A trial is expected to begin by the end of the year.

Since 1997, Santa Monica has budgeted $2.2 million annually for the study, investigation and now treatment of the MTBE-contaminated wells at the Charnock wells in Mar Vista and the Arcadia wells, which are located in West Los Angeles.

Ethanol is a corn-based additive that also helps gasoline burn cleaner. Either product can be used to meet a federal requirement that gasoline contain a 2 percent oxygen additive to cut down on air pollution.

Davis unsuccessfully sought a three-year waiver from that requirement.

BP, which sells gasoline under the ARCO brand, said last month it already has signed contracts with several ethanol suppliers. Phillips Petroleum, which sells gasoline under the Union 76 brand, began eliminating MTBE two years ago.

The Renewable Fuels Action Project called on San Francisco-based ChevronTexaco to join the move, which would mean about 75 percent of the state’s gas stations would be MTBE-free by year’s end.

ChevronTexaco will eliminate MTBE “as soon as possible” because of customer demand, said spokeswoman Nicole Hodgson. However, “there are a number of uncertainties,” including Davis’ deadline delay and the company’s use of a common pipeline with other shippers who may not all make the switch away from MTBE at the same time.

Shell’s announcement is significant in judging how the industry might voluntarily meet Davis’ original deadline, said Bob Dinneen, president of the Washington, D.C-based Renewable Fuels Association, which promotes ethanol.

Shell not only refines and markets gas in California, but runs a major petroleum pipeline and shipping terminal, he said, so it has a good idea what it will take to supply the state with enough ethanol to meet demand.

He predicted consumers will show a preference for companies that make the early switch away from MTBE.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 13, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/061302.pdf?ref=smdp.com)