New York Well Owners File MTBE Class Action Lawsuit

NEW YORK--Well owners filed a class action lawsuit on January 14, 2000 in New York Supreme Court in Manhattan alleging that major oil companies are responsible for statewide drinking water contamination problems caused by MTBE, a potentially cancer-causing gasoline additive. Lewis Saul & Associates, attorneys for the plaintiff well owners, simultaneously released government information that identified 126 MTBE-contaminated public water supply wells on Long Island and MTBE spills in every one of New York's 62 counties.60 Minutes, the CBS news program, focused national attention on MTBE by devoting unusually extensive coverage to the pollutant on January 16, 2000. MTBE is a potentially cancer-causing gasoline additive in widespread use. When released into the environment via leaking tanks and spills, MTBE can contaminate drinking water wells more than one mile away.Lewis Saul, the principal attorney in charge of the lawsuit, said, "We are filing suit on behalf of New Yorkers who may have the biggest MTBE pollution problem in the nation." Saul added, "MTBE-contaminated wells across New York are a serious public health risk that will grow even worse unless immediate action is taken."Lewis Saul & Associates retained Toxics Targeting, Inc., an environmental research firm, to compile government information on MTBE hazards in New York. That firm today posted on www.mtbecontamination.com a map of 126 Long Island public water wells that have reported MTBE levels. 60 Minutes used that map to illustrate MTBE problems in Nassau and Suffolk Counties, where more than three million people drink water drawn from a single underground source.Toxics Targeting also today posted maps and profiles of 1,829 MTBE spills in New York's 62 counties on www.mtbecontamination.com. A total of 1,519 spills was identified by an internal review conducted by the State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) during the fall of 1998. The additional 310 MTBE spills were identified based on references in the DEC database that tracks Hazardous Material Spills on a statewide basis.The reported MTBE spills involve hundreds of service stations and a wide array of other public and private sites with leaking gasoline tanks and other uncontrolled releases. Many of the spills have contaminated groundwaters with MTBE concentrations that exceed millions of parts per billion. The vast majority of these MTBE spills do not meet a new 10 part per billion cleanup guideline recently proposed by New York environmental officials.Citizens concerned about MTBE threats to their water supplies and homes can easily check www.mtbecontamination.com to locate reported MTBE spills in every county of New York. Detailed information for specific MTBE spills can be obtained by clicking the link for each spill. MTBE spills also can be searched alphabetically by community name.Walter Hang, President of Toxics Targeting, said, "Millions of Long Island residents will be shocked when they find out that their sole source of drinking water is threatened by extensive MTBE contamination." Hang also noted, "Unless MTBE spills across New York are cleaned up without further delay, thousands of communities could face drinking water hazards of unprecedented proportions."SOURCE Lewis Saul & Associates, PC