PROVIDENCE – Three major oil companies have agreed to pay the state $15 million for polluting state soil and water with a banned gasoline additive, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha announced on Monday.
The settlement between the state of Rhode Island and Shell, Sunoco and CITGO ends a nearly seven-year-long legal battle in which the state sought to recoup funds to clean up contamination from gasoline additive Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether, or MTBE. The 2016 lawsuit, filed by Neronha and former Department of Environmental Management Director Janet Coit in Rhode Island District Court, charged all major oil companies in the region with adding MBTE to its gasoline, when they “knew or should have reasonably known that MBTE would be released into the environment and cause contamination of property, water, water supplies and wells throughout the state,” according to the complaint.
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MBTE, which is added to gasoline to increase its oxygen content, has been banned in Rhode Island since 2007 but is still found in groundwater throughout the state, according to Neronha’s office.
There is little research about how drinking water contaminated with MBTE will affect someone’s health, but breathing it in can cause headaches, nausea and dizziness, among other symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It has also created liver problems and cancer in studies with mice and rats, although it is not a recognized human carcinogen.
Under the settlement, the three oil companies will pay a combined $15 million which will be dedicated to emergency response and ongoing contamination cleanup by the DEM.
“MBTE contamination of public water supplies poses a significant public health and safety risk, one which oil and gas companies knew about well before the public did,” Neronha said in a statement. “The work to remediate contaminated water supplies continues, and the funds recovered to date, including today, will be exclusively dedicated to doing that work. In the meantime, this office remains strongly committed to ensuring that the remaining oil and gas defendants are held responsible for the damage they have caused to the people of Rhode Island and the environment.”
Another four oil companies – Hess, Total Petrochemicals & Refining USA Inc., Marathon and Conoco – will pay a combined $2.1 million for remediation and cleanup under a separate settlement also announced on Monday.
Legal battles with several of the oil companies named in the original suit, including Exxon Mobile, British Petroleum, Chevron, Valero, and Irving, are ongoing, according to Neronha’s office.
Nancy Lavin is a PBN staff writer. You may reach her at Lavin@PBN.com.
