MTBE in California's Drinking Water: A Comparison of Groundwater Versus Surface Water Sources

Abstract

During the last decade, the fuel oxygenate methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) has received widespread attention as a potential threat to water quality, primarily due to leaking underground gasoline storage tanks and watercraft with two-stroke engines. In this article, we examine the annual detection frequency, number of new source detections, and concentration of MTBE detected in California's public drinking water groundwater and surface water sources from 1995 to 2002. This work builds on our previous evaluations of California's water quality monitoring database. However, it is unique in that it includes separate evaluations for groundwater and surface water sources that are of greatest concern to regulators, and which are likely being used for current public consumption. Our evaluations also include full-year data for 2002 (which have not been published previously) and an analysis of how the sampling and reported detections of MTBE vary by geographic location. We find that MTBE was generally detected (at any level) in approximately 0.5-0.9% and 0.2-0.4% of all groundwater sources assuming a one-detection and two-detection criterion, respectively. The overall detection frequency for MTBE in surface water sources is significantly higher than for groundwater sources, although these surface water detections appear to have substantially declined since 1996 (e.g., 7-9% for all surface water sources during 1996 to 1999 and 4% for all surface water sources during 2000 to 2002, assuming a one-detection criterion). The detection frequency of MTBE concentrations at or above the state drinking water standards in all drinking water sources (both groundwater and surface water sources) and the subset of drinking water sources that are likely to currently be delivered to consumers is markedly lower (and often zero). Despite the significant increase in water sampling over time, the number of new drinking water sources found to contain MTBE in California has not increased at the same rate and appears to have remained relatively stable or to have decreased since 1998. The data also show that nearly all of the 58 counties in California have routinely sampled at least some of their groundwater and surface water sources for MTBE over the last 8 years. Geographical evaluations show that MTBE has been detected (at least once) in groundwater sources in 34 counties and in surface water sources in 18 counties but has only been detected routinely (i.e., for 3 or more years) in 16 and 7 counties, respectively. Detected concentrations of MTBE are also generally below state drinking water standards, particularly for surface water sources. In short: (1) MTBE is rarely found in California groundwater or surface water sources that are of greatest concern to regulators or the public, and (2) drinking water detections of MTBE are expected to decline in the future due to the pending phase-out of MTBE and recent regulatory programs aimed at controlling gasoline releases from underground storage tanks and two-stroke-engine watercraft.