Posted on 04/11/2007 7:09:59 AM PDT by yoe
High levels of cancer-causing benzene and the suspected carcinogen MTBE have been found in the ground water beneath a Citgo gas station in Monrovia, the Frederick County Health Department said Tuesday.
Both chemicals are gasoline additives.
There is no indication that the contamination has migrated offsite, the health department said. All property owners within a half-mile of Green Valley Citgo will be notified of the sampling results, the agency said.
The health department said benzene, a known carcinogen, was detected at a level of 66 parts per billion, or about 13 times the federal Environmental Protection Agency's maximum contaminant level of 5 ppb.
Methyl tertiary-butyl ether, or MTBE, was found at 59,000 parts per billion, which is thousands of times greater than the EPA limit of 20-40 ppb. MTBE's effect on human health hasn't been determined but an internal Environmental Protection Agency paper reportedly concluded it may cause cancer. The draft EPA paper was described as a preliminary document that hadn't been peer-reviewed, The Associated Press reported in July.
The Maryland Department of the Environment has ordered the gas station owner to conduct extensive testing and sampling of the storage tank system, monitoring wells and adjoining, offsite wells.
My father lives in that county...nowhere near Monrovia, thankfully. His house water is piped in from a spring.
The chemical mandated by the guvment to be put in gasoline. The guvment should pay for cleanup, not the oil companies.
A LUST (Leaking Underground Storage Tank) site makes the news?!?! Man, I thought I’d gone back in time to circa 1980 when I saw this, there’s only about 25,000 of these here in CA, Maryland probably has at least a 1000 of them...
Eh...gasoline shouldn’t be in the groundwater anyhow, MTBE or not.
send the bill to Hugo Chavez
BTW - benzene was used to make decaf coffee for years :-)
I used to as well. 66 is not that high for Benz. They should be able to capture the plume effectively as it has not moved off site.
Ordinarily, I'd agree. But this is Citgo. All their assets in the US should be seized as an offset for US owned assets being seized by thier owner.
Amber Meadows bump
I remember it as the LUFT manual and it was an excellent source for its time as it took several environmental into consideration when setting MCLs and clean-up goals. However, it didn’t fit the “dumb” one size fits all EPA criteria. Wow, California and environmental science in the 1980s and early 1990s was about as exciting as the 49ers West Coast Offense.
You are right but gasoline tanks have been leaking since they first put them underground. The difference now is that there are wells near the tanks. Years ago the gas stations were not so close to water wells.
Where in the h___ is Frederick County? Nobody’s ever heard of that place except you!!!
Northwest of DC.
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