ABSTRACT
The introduction of a chemical into widely used consumer products such as gasoline can lead to the rapid dispersal of the chemical into the environment. The data provided by the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Water Quality Assessment (USGS-NAQWA) program, as presented in the work by Moran and co-workers, illustrate how widespread the contaminant methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) has become in U.S. groundwaters. Although we have benefited from the historical lessons of DDT, leaded gasoline, and the appearance of halogenated dioxins and PCBs throughout the global environment, the relatively recent introduction of MTBE into gasoline and its rapid appearance in the environment caught U.S. regulatory agencies by surprise.
