MtBE in Groundwater: The Maine Experiment

March - August 2004

Principle Investigators:
John Peckenham - Assistant Director/Senior Research Scientist, Senator George Mitchell Center for Environmental and Watershed Research and instructor in Graduate Faculty, University of Maine, Orono, Maine
Jonathan Rubin - Interim Director, Margaret Chase Smith Center for Public Policy, University of Maine, Orono, Maine
Kevin Boyle - Libra Professor of Environmental Economics, Department of Resource Economics and Policy, University of Maine, Orono, Maine

Cooperating Investigators:
Robert Lent  - District Chief, USGS- WRD Augusta, Maine
Martha Nielsen - Hydrologist, USGS-WRD Augusta, Maine

MtBE is a gasoline additive that has contaminated groundwater nationwide. In 1998, a statewide survey in Maine determined that 16% of ground water supplies contained MtBE. Public outcry caused Maine to ban the use of reformulated gasoline in March 1999. This event set up a unique opportunity to study how a change from 12% to 2% MtBE in fuel affects the quality of water resources and the costs of spill remediation. Most importantly, we can determine how fast MtBE's natural rate of remediation occurs and thus provide information to allow other regions to react to their specific situation with the appropriate understanding of MtBE persistence and associated costs for clean up.

This research will examine the spatial distribution and persistence of MtBE on the town and statewide scales. For the town scale we use Windham, Maine, a suburban town with well-documented MtBE contamination in groundwater.  The statewide scale uses statistical sub-populations from areas with different MtBE use-histories and state records on remediation. The scaled experimental design will examine both site-specific behavior (rate of change in MtBE concentrations) and changes in spatial distributions.  The economics component of this project will evaluate the costs of using and remediating MtBE to lower levels. We will evaluate the economic benefit in reduced remediation costs by switching to low, or no-MtBE fuels. 

This project is a collaborative effort of:

1. University of Maine 
2. U.S. Geological Survey at the town study location (USGS- WRD-Augusta) 
3. Maine Department of Environmental Protection to evaluate MtBE and other oxygenates at ground water remediation sites and to analyze samples for other fuel oxygenates

For additional information concerning this research project, please contact the Margaret Chase Smith Center for Public Policy at (207)581-1648 or at mcsc@umit.maine.udu

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Page last updated on November 1, 2002