Navy in No Hurry to Clean Up Toxic Plume

A gasoline additive that leaked out of storage tanks under the Port Hueneme Navy base has grown into one of the largest contaminant messes of its kind in California.

Yet the military is making no attempt to halt the spreading pollution, in part because of budget shortages and because the pollution mass supports experiments that could one day solve the growing problem of MTBE pollution nationwide.

The chemical MTBE, which was designed to clean the air but instead polluted drinking water across the country, was discovered leaking from the gas station at the Naval Construction Battalion Center five years ago. Since then, it has grown into a pollution plume nearly one mile in length and 500 feet wide.

At its current rate--it grows about 1 foot per day--the plume will likely rise to the surface and spill into Port Hueneme Harbor in about 18 months, officials say.

“It’s pretty big,” said Peter Raftery, project manager for the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control board. “It’s not a record, but it’s one of the largest plumes in California.”

Navy officials feel no urgency to act any time soon because no wells are threatened and no one is drinking the contaminated ground water.

Furthermore, the Navy is concerned that mopping up the pollution at the base could undermine experiments underway there seeking a silver bullet for the national MTBE problem. The military and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have designated the base a testing center for MTBE remedies, a program that has won the Navy acclaim for its pursuit of innovative environmental solutions.

“It’s an ideal opportunity because we have this plume and it isn’t a threat to drinking water and it isn’t going to get to a drinking water resource,” said Gail Pringle, environmental protection specialist for the base. “In the concentrations we have, it is no risk to the ecosystem; it’s not going to kill fish or birds or injure swimmers. It’s an opportunity to test the technologies here and use them at sites where there really is a problem with drinking water.”

Nonetheless, the Navy is under mounting pressure from state regulators to clean up the mess. The chemical is a menace to water supplies because it spreads rapidly, is difficult to control and poses uncertain health effects.

Methyl tertiary butyl ether was first used in 1972 as a gasoline octane booster. But its use spread after the 1990 Clean Air Act required smoggy places such as Southern California to use oxygen-rich substances like MTBE as a clean-air remedy. Today, MTBE leaks from 4,000 tank sites statewide, has been detected in 31 wells and shut down much of the domestic water supply for Santa Monica and South Lake Tahoe.

The Port Hueneme plume was born in 1985 when 11,000 gallons of gasoline leaked from corroded tanks. Those tanks were replaced with leakproof ones, but the chemical, which outruns other petroleum hydrocarbons once it hits water, was on its way. It was first spotted in a test well in 1995 at a depth of 10 feet.

*

At about the same time, MTBE was moving into the daily lexicon as a synonym for technology gone awry. But scientists realized the plume offered a perfect laboratory to study the chemical and ways to remove it from the environment. The plume was large enough that multiple experiments could be conducted at once. Restricted access to the base ensured that field equipment would be safe.

Called the National Environmental Technology Test Site, the project includes researchers from the University of California, University of Washington, Arizona State University and Equilon Westhole Technology Center, a joint project between Shell Oil Co. and Texaco Inc.

Six major projects are underway. One injects microscopic bugs into the plume to eat the MTBE and convert it to carbon dioxide gas and water. Another pumps air into the ground to stimulate naturally occurring bacteria to attack the substance. There are filtration devices, and a eucalyptus tree is being studied to determine if its roots suck the chemical out of the ground like normal water, said Ernie Lory, manager of the test center.

“These are the only [MTBE] technology demonstrations that have taken place. It’s the location people are going to to demonstrate technology,” said Paul C. Johnson, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Arizona State.

More research is on the way. In December, the EPA selected the base for its MTBE cleanup studies. The agency plans to spend $1 million this year, and Lory said as many as eight new projects could be coming.

The base is critical, said Michael Wang, environmental manager for the Western States Petroleum Assn. “The more we understand the problem, the better chance we have of finding a solution, and that requires we study these kinds of plumes.”

*

But at the same time, California is moving against MTBE. Californians burn about 1 billion gallons of gasoline per month and 11% of that total consists of MTBE. But last year, Gov. Gray Davis issued an executive order to ban it from gasoline sold in California by December 2002. In response, the California Air Resources Board directed that all gasoline sold in the state undergo a $1-billion reformulation to eliminate the additive, which probably will be replaced by ethanol made from corn.

MTBE has been linked to cancer in animal studies and comes with an offensive, turpentine-like odor. Yet no regulatory limit has been set, although a state advisory level of 13 parts of MTBE per billion parts of water has been proposed.

“It’s a significant issue because it is used everyplace in the state. Wherever it’s used, it has the potential to get into ground water from leaking tanks,” said Robert Miller, spokesman for the state Water Resources Control Board.

Last April, officials at the Los Angeles area water quality board directed the Navy to prepare measures to contain and clean up the contamination and submit the plan by last December. But the Navy has resisted that approach, and instead proposed more study of the plume.

Pringle, the base environmental specialist, said she is hopeful one of the experimental technologies will emerge as a solution, although none is capable of large-scale treatment at this time.

*

Finding funds for the work, too, poses special problems. The base’s current budget does not include money for cleanup. Pringle said absent an established regulatory limit and clear-cut health risk, it will be a tough sell persuading the Pentagon to make it a priority.

“Even though it’s big in size, there isn’t a threat to anyone or anything right now. There are no plans to clean it up at this time,” Pringle said. “It is a low priority. There are environmental issues people should be concerned with, but right now this isn’t one of them.”