Shore residents sue over MTBA pollution
In what is believed to be the first lawsuit of kind in New Jersey, 94 South Jersey residents are claiming that gasoline containing a toxic additive has contaminated their drinking water and made them ill.
Naming Cumberland Farms, Chevron and Gulf Oil as defendants, the lawsuit details several years of complaints of nausea, headaches, and dizziness. The residents blame their maladies on a leaking underground gasoline tank at the Cumberland Farms service station on Route 9 and Morris Boulevard in Bayville.
"A lot of people are sick down there and we need answers," said Shari Blecher, the Princeton-based attorney representing the residents.
The lawsuit is believed to be the first filed in New Jersey involving the gas additive MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether), which reduces harmful emissions by adding oxygen to fuel.
Since 1990, the federal government has required regions of the country with high levels of carbon monoxide pollution to increase the amount of the oxygen additive in their fuel.
But earlier this year, after years of promoting MTBE to fight air pollution, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, after reports that the additive was contaminating ground water, said it would look to "significantly reduce or eliminate" the use of the additive.
The EPA recommended that Congress adopt legislation to phase out MTBE, but Congress has yet to take action.
Up until last year, retailers in northern New Jersey were required to sell gasoline that contained 15 percent MTBE by volume. But northern New Jersey counties got permission from the EPA last year to drop that level to 11 percent - the same amount that southern New Jersey counties have has since 1995.
In July 1999, Cumberland Farms paid to have an underground gasoline storage tank and 366 tons of contaminated soil removed from its service station property, according to the DEP.
"A lot of people are sick down there and we need answers."
-SHARI BLECHER, attorney representing Bayville residents
An attorney representing Cumberland Farms was unavailable for comment yesterday. Cumberland Farms owns and operates the station, but purchases fuel from Chevron, which used to be Gulf Oil.
The DEP also required Cumberland Farms to test underground water wells in the area, after residents near the station complained of a funny taste and a strange odor coming from their water.
Out of 200 homes where wells were tested, eight were found to have more MTBE in them than allowed by state low, DEP spokesman Rob Schmitt said.
After the tests are completed, Cumberland Farms will be required to submit a clean-up plan, Schmitt said.
"We've been on top of this since day one," Schmitt said. "We 're making sure that the soil is remediated and that the wells are being tested properly."
Because of the tainted wells, in May 1999, the Ocean County health officials notified residents not to drink the water. Cumberland Farms has since provided bottled water to some residents and paid for other residents to be hooked into the municipal water system.
Barry Grossman, founder of Oxy-Busters, a citizens group that has fought to get the government to ban MTBE, criticized both the state and federal government for not having outlawed the additive.
"It's been almost a year since the EPA told Congress to begin phasing it out in gas," Grossman said. "It would appear that this issue is so political in nature that it has taken a back seat to corporate profits."
Anthony S. Twyman covers the environment. He can be reached at atwyman@starledger.com or at (609)989-0322
