Isn’t that what MTBE does?
MTBE is responsible for at least 10,000 wells in CA alone being poisoned and left unusable.
Small amounts spilled at gas stations and elsewhere found its way into the ground water, and from there into the wells, rendering them unusable.
“MTBE is responsible for at least 10,000 wells in CA alone being poisoned and left unusable.
Small amounts spilled at gas stations and elsewhere found its way into the ground water, and from there into the wells, rendering them unusable.”
Your statement contradicts the article. One of you is wrong.
From the article:
Unlike ethanol, which is edible, methanol is toxic—but so is gasoline. However, unlike gasoline or petroleum, methanol is soluble in water and readily biodegradable by common bacteria, so spills of methanol, whether from defective pumping stations or shipwrecked tankers, would have no long-term environmental impact. Furthermore, as the authors demonstrate, the toxicity of methanol is commonly overstated. In point of fact, methanol is present naturally in fresh fruit, and so low doses of methanol have always been a normal part of the human diet. Unlike gasoline, methanol is not a carcinogen or a mutagen, and the pollutants and other emissions from methanol-powered internal combustion engines are far more benign than emissions from their gasoline-driven counterparts. (Automobile emissions could even be reduced to zero with methanol-based fuel cells.) And if methanol is produced from carbon dioxide or from biomass, its use in place of petroleum acts to counter man-made global warming as well. “Compared to gasoline or diesel fuel,” the authors conclude, “methanol is clearly environmentally much safer and less toxic.”