CBS 60 Minutes reporter has egg on his face regarding conclusions on MTBE contamination crisis

At least one reporter for CBS 60 Minutes Program has egg on his face this week. In a rare double segment, 60 Minutes provided a compelling summary of the public health and cleanup problems in the United States due to contamination of tens of thousands of drinking water wells and ground water sites by methly-tert-butyl-ether (MTBE). The product is a common oxygenated fuel additive used in reformulated gasoline. (See related PWOL article.)

The 60 Minute episode ended with a conclusion offered by reporter Steve Kroft that "what's lacking is an engineering solution to make the [MTBE cleanup] process practical and cost-effective."

Proven products that are effective and affordable revealed
At least two companies claiming to have proven products that are both effective and affordable to combat the problem, have pounced on the broadcast disputing its conclusions.

Regenesis Bioremediation Products (San Clemente, CA) says it offers a technological solution to the MTBE contamination crisis and Waterlink/Barnebey Sutcliffe, Inc. (Canton, OH) claims a pair of activated carbon products that provide effective, economical cleanup.

The 60 Minutes segments noted that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has classified MTBE as a possible human carcinogen. MTBE contamination was also identified as particularly troubling for government regulators and industry to address because unlike traditional petroleum constituents, MTBE moves quickly to pollute water and is slow to degrade in the subsurface environment.

Full scope of contamination problem still undetermined
The episode reported the June 1998 study by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory that found MTBE is a contaminant that is "frequent" and "widespread," impacting at least 10,000 sites in California alone. But as 60 Minutes points out through interviews with key EPA and state environmental regulators, MTBE contamination is found nationwide at tens of thousands of sites, with the full scope of the contamination problem still not determined.

Contrary to the conclusion offered at the end of the 60 Minutes episode, Regenesis President William J Cox points to its "engineering solution" to clean up MTBE contamination—Regenesis' Oxygen Release Compound.

By providing a long-lasting oxygen supply, Regenesis' patented ORC greatly accelerates the cleanup of MTBE contamination in drinking and ground water–a process called enhanced bioremediation. Enhanced bioremediation refers to the acceleration of the process by which naturally present microbes use oxygen to degrade contaminants in the subsurface, including those found in drinking and ground water.

According to Waterlink/Barnebey Sutcliffe, Inc., the second company to call the broadcast to task, its pair of activated carbon products work singly or in conjunction to provide effective, economical treatment of specific MTBE-contamination applications. These treatment systems employ a succession of filters—or adsorbers—to systematically filter contaminants from the water.

The Ohio-based company has already has installed systems for remediation of MTBE-contaminated water in numerous locations across the U.S., including seven different sites in the Lake Tahoe area, a focal area of the Jan. 16 news reports.

According to Regenesis, its technology is well-accepted by environmental regulators and has been documented to rapidly clean up ground water contaminated with MTBE.

Gary Genteman, a senior scientist at Sigma Environmental Corporation of Oak Creek, Wisconsin states "at a site with MTBE contamination in ground water, ORC reduced the MTBE contamination from 3,000 parts per billion to 48 parts per billion in one year's time. In fact, within two years of the ORC application, MTBE was not detected at all."

Edited by Joyce Jungclaus, Editor, Public Works Online
Information provided by Regenesis Bioremediation Products and Waterlink/Barnebey Sutcliffe, Inc.