posted 04-17-2002 10:27 PM            

Look how major corporations knowingly exposed the public to a toxic pollutant, MTBE, and intentionally withheld data showing harmful effects.

I hope the jury has a field day!
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/04/17/MN162760 .DTL

2 oil giants deceived public on MTBE's hazards, jury finds

Jane Kay, Chronicle Environment Writer Wednesday, April 17, 2002
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In a landmark case, a San Francisco jury has found that gasoline with the additive MTBE is a defective product and that two major oil companies were aware of the chemical's dangers but withheld the information when they put it on the market.

The Superior Court jury made its finding in a product liability case brought by the South Tahoe Public Utility District over contamination of the district's groundwater. The district sued in 1998 after MTBE pollution forced it to close a third of its drinking water wells.

In its verdict Monday, the jury said Shell Oil Co., Lyondell Chemical Co. (formerly Atlantic Richfield Chemical Co.) and Tosco Corp. (now part of Phillips Petroleum) had placed a defective product on the market when they began selling gasoline with MTBE, or methyl tertiary butyl ether.

The jury also found that Shell and Lyondell acted with malice when they withheld information about the chemical. Lawyers for the South Lake Tahoe district had presented evidence that the companies promoted MTBE even though they knew it could contaminate water supplies.

The verdict, the first of its kind, came after seven weeks of deliberation in a five-month trial. Dozens of such cases are pending against the nation's largest oil companies that could expose the industry to billions of dollars in cleanup costs and punitive damages.

Lawyers involved in the case were prohibited from speaking to the media yesterday by Judge Carlos Bea because another phase of the trial must still address damages and the question of whether MTBE was the cause of groundwater pollution in South Lake Tahoe.

But Scott Summy, an attorney in the Dallas firm of Baron and Budd, which has MTBE cases in California, New York, Florida and Illinois, called the verdict "very significant."

"The jury was presented with ample evidence that these companies had early knowledge that predicted these problems," Summy said. "They failed to disclose the information they had and also promoted the additive in gasoline despite the fact that it had inherent problems."

An oil industry trade group, Western States Petroleum Association, declined to comment. Generally, the industry has maintained that it followed state and federal laws and that MTBE was deemed appropriate by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The federal Clean Air Act requires that regions that don't meet air quality standards must use an additive -- either MTBE or ethanol -- to reduce vehicle pollution. In California, the refiners chose MTBE, which they can make from petroleum instead of buying ethanol from the Midwest.

But MTBE has proved to be a major environmental headache nationwide. Spilling from leaky underground storage tanks, it travels faster in the groundwater than gas and takes longer to break down. The state has set a maximum limit for drinking water because MTBE is a suspected carcinogen.

According to state records, there are 1,189 underground tank sites leaking MTBE within 1,000 feet of public supply wells or on vulnerable drinking water aquifers. An additional 1,729 leaking tank sites farther away from drinking water wells also pose a concern.

Gov. Gray Davis recently delayed the statewide phaseout of MTBE in gasoline until January 2004.

South Lake Tahoe, with a population of 28,000 that swells to 50,000 in the summer, is one of the communities hardest hit by MTBE pollution. The city closed 12 of its 34 drinking water wells because of the MTBE contamination.

"As a resort community, Lake Tahoe has built a reputation on a pristine lake, clean air and pure water," said utility district spokesman Dennis Cocking in a recent interview. "Who wants to save up their money and go on a vacation and drink water that tastes like paint thinner?"

The South Lake Tahoe utility estimates that it has spent more than $9 million, which doesn't include the cost of treating the tainted water. The cost to remove MTBE from the water supply is estimated at $45 million.

In 1998, South Tahoe sued 31 companies, alleging that their defective product spoiled drinking water. Shell and Tosco were named because they owned the gas stations along Highway 50 where underground tanks leaked MTBE. Arco Chemical manufacturers MTBE. Twenty-six companies already settled for $33 million last year.

Nationwide, the punitive damages for MTBE contamination could reach billions of dollars from suits filed by cities, water districts, private well owners and perhaps consumers of tainted water, said Richard Drury, a lawyer with Communities for a Better Environment.

Drury said the oil companies exhibited "the same type of knowing indifference to the public health" that tobacco companies did in promoting cigarettes. "In this case, it's also indifference to the environment," Drury said.

"It was proven that the companies' own scientists for almost a decade were saying, 'Don't put MTBE on the market, or you're going to create a big environmental disaster.' The companies put it out anyway. It wasn't an innocent mistake," Drury said.

Drury has a lawsuit in the same court charging that Exxon, Mobil and Tosco engaged in unfair business practices in marketing MTBE. Yesterday, a state justice denied the companies' request to throw out the case, allowing a stalled trial to proceed.

ChevronTexaco, Unocal, Shell and Atlantic Richfield Co. settled last year, agreeing to clean up almost 1,300 sites around the state.

Chronicle staff writer Harriet Chiang contributed to this article. / E-mail Jane Kay at jkay@sfchronicle.com.

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...but I dream.

Remember "Executive Orders"? One man, selected - not elected - can with the single stroke of a pen decree that all is legal...all wrongs can be forgiven.

posted 04-18-2002 03:44 AM            

if gore would have won I can only imagine the horror of his first state of the union address, a rodney king, flowers in the barrels of guns United Nations-type speech...and the certain (next day) economic trouble that would follow....

anyway be glad your tax dollars are not going for an elected official that was spending his taxpayer time using cigars that go elsewhere of the mouth...

clinton with the stroke of a pen allowed the *big drug companies* to advertise their wares on tv, radio and such....

to me there is noone more untrustworthy than one who has a vested interest in your *un-health*...

chew on that homey....

posted 04-18-2002 10:50 AM            

Two major oil companies and the manufacturer of MTBE, a major pollutant, were convicted of concealing their knowledge of the hazards associated with the gasoline additive.
The verdict by a San Francisco jury Tuesday went against the defendants even though in adding MTBE, or methyl tertiary butyl ether, to their gasoline, the oil companies had acted under orders from the federal government.

The Feds Made Them Do It
The federal Clean Air Act mandates that areas not meeting air quality standards must use MTBE or ethanol to reduce vehicle pollution, the defendants argued. In California, the refiners chose MTBE, which they can make from petroleum instead of buying ethanol from the Midwest.

The argument failed to save the defendants from the guilty verdict, the first of its kind. The jury found that gasoline with the additive MTBE is a defective product and held that two major oil companies knew of the chemical's dangers but still withheld that information from the public when they put it on the market.

The product liability suit was brought by the South Tahoe Public Utility District over contamination of the district's groundwater in 1998 after MTBE pollution forced it to close a third of its drinking-water wells.
The jury found that Shell Oil Co., Lyondell Chemical Co. (formerly Atlantic Richfield Chemical Co.) and Tosco Corp. (now part of Phillips Petroleum) had put a defective product on the market when they began selling gasoline with MTBE added.

They also found that Shell and Lyondell acted with malice when they withheld information about the chemical. According to Wednesday's San Francisco Chronicle, the South Lake Tahoe district's lawyers had presented evidence that the companies promoted MTBE even though they knew it could contaminate water supplies.

Scott Summy, an attorney in the Dallas firm of Baron and Budd, which has MTBE cases in California, New York, Florida and Illinois, told the Chronicle the verdict was "very significant."

'Early Knowledge'
"The jury was presented with ample evidence that these companies had early knowledge that predicted these problems," Summy said. "They failed to disclose the information they had and also promoted the additive in gasoline despite the fact that it had inherent problems." The additive has proved to be a major environmental headache nationwide, the Chronicle explained. Spilling from leaky underground storage tanks, it travels faster in the groundwater than gasoline and takes longer to break down. California has set a maximum limit for drinking water because MTBE is a suspected carcinogen.

Richard Drury, a lawyer with Communities for a Better Environment, told the newspaper that the punitive damages for MTBE contamination could reach billions of dollars nationwide from suits filed by cities, water districts, private well owners and perhaps consumers of tainted water.
The oil companies exhibited "the same type of knowing indifference to the public health" that tobacco companies did in promoting cigarettes. "In this case, it's also indifference to the environment," Drury said.

"It was proven that the companies' own scientists for almost a decade were saying, 'Don't put MTBE on the market, or you're going to create a big environmental disaster.' The companies put it out anyway. It wasn't an innocent mistake," Drury said.
Drury has a lawsuit before the same court charging that Exxon, Mobil and Tosco engaged in unfair business practices in marketing MTBE, the Chronicle wrote. A state justice Tuesday denied the companies' request to throw out the case and allowed a stalled trial to proceed.

ChevronTexaco, Unocal, Shell and Atlantic Richfield Co. settled last year. They agreed to clean up almost 1,300 sites around the state.

"It should reverberate in the executive suites and board rooms of oil companies and cause them to realize they have embarked on a legal strategy that will bring them nothing but grief," Joe Lawrence, Santa Monica's assistant city attorney, told the Los Angeles Times. The city has sued seven major oil companies and 11 other firms for allegedly tainting much of its drinking water with MTBE.

Cleanup costs could reach $200 million, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The case is expected to go to trial next year.

Lawrence said several dozen similar cases have been filed across the nation.
Cleanup nationwide is expected to cost at least $29 billion, according to a study commissioned by Santa Monica and other cities. California is phasing out use of the chemical by Jan. 1, 2004.

Davis Delays Phaseout
Democrat Gov. Gray Davis, facing a tough re-election battle, recently delayed the statewide phaseout of MTBE in gasoline until January 2004.