By Brian Anderson
Valley Times

July 24, 2001

OAKLAND — Alameda County supervisors should immediately act to rid the area's gasoline of the toxic additive MTBE and aggressively treat more than two dozen contaminated sites that threaten local water supplies, a grand jury investigation has concluded.

The inquiry, sparked by a complaint of leaky gasoline tanks beneath a service station in downtown Livermore, determined that high costs and too little funding are hindering clean-up of tainted areas.

"It certainly validates Zone 7's action from 41/2 years ago when our board recognized that MTBE posed a very real threat to our groundwater basin," said John Marchand, a board member of the Zone 7 water agency, citing a 1997 resolution calling for an end to MTBE use. "I think it's a very positive step that the agencies empowered to act are beginning to do so."

MTBE, or methyl tertiary-butyl ether, was added to gasoline beginning in the 1970s to help reduce harmful emissions that create air quality problems. But the suspected carcinogen leaked from gasoline storage tanks, creating 10,000 polluted sites around the state.

No health problems in humans have been linked to the substance, but lab animals have developed leukemia, lymphoma and tumors after being exposed to it.

Fears over the potential harmful effects led Gov. Gray Davis in 1999 to call for a statewide ban on MTBE by 2002.

Leaky tanks at Valley Gas and Food Mart at the corner of First and L streets in Livermore caused one of the largest MTBE-contaminated sites in California. The tanks dripped tainted gas for years before government monitors discovered the problem.

But the plume has decreased in size over the past year, the 19-member grand jury concluded in the final report of its yearlong term. Sheltered partly by a 40-foot layer of clay, ground water supplies remain untouched, according to the report.

Nevertheless, grand jurors urged supervisors to take the issue very seriously, realizing, however, that funding site cleanup is a major obstacle.

Finding enough money to pay for what oftentimes are extremely costly operations "will plague decision makers as MTBE continues to be stored and used as an additive to gasoline," the report found.

"What the grand jury found was that the county and various agencies that have responsibility for protecting the groundwater are really doing a pretty good job in the Tri-Valley area of finding the spills, being alerted when they take place and developing a good workable plan to monitor and, if necessary, deal with them more aggressively," said Deputy District Attorney Jeff Stark.

Supervisor Scott Haggerty, who represents the Livermore area, could not be reached for comment.

Grand jurors also recommended building a new facility to house a crime lab and the Coroner's Bureau.

Calling the current facility an "embarrassment," the grand jury pointed out in its 70-page report that refrigeration units used to store bodies are in constant need of repair, air conditioning is nonexistent and a receiving dock for bodies is in plain view.

County Sheriff Lt. Patrick Adams, a Coroner's Bureau supervisor, said the report findings were valid.

"We'd be able to serve the needs of the community at least in a manner that makes access to citizens better" with a new building, Adams said.