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REMEDIAL COSTS FOR MTBE IN SOIL AND GROUND WATER
Citation:
Wilson, B. H. AND T. Wilson*. REMEDIAL COSTS FOR MTBE IN SOIL AND GROUND WATER. Chapter 17, Moyer & Kostecki (ed.), MTBE Remediation Handbook. Amherst Scientific Publishers, Amherst, MA, , 349-360, (2004).
Description:
Widespread contamination of methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) in ground water has raised concerns about the increased cost of remediation of MTBE releases compared to BTEX-only sites. To evaluate these costs, cost information for 311 sites was furnished by U.S. EPA Office of Underground Storage Tanks (OUST, 2000), several states, BP/Amoco, Creek and Davidson (1998), and other sources. The majority of the sites were from South Carolina (183), Kansas (53), and New York (32). Information from sites in Maine, Texas, California, and Illinois was also included. The provided costs were project costs, actual costs, estimated project costs, or estimated project costs to date and included site assessment costs, capital expenditures, and operating and maintenance (O&M) expenses. BP/Amoco provided site specific cost data, average O&M costs, and total project costs for several sites primarily in California and on the East Coast.
The average cleanup cost of the 311 sites was $200,827 with a range of $21,000 (a UST in South Carolina) to $1,203,168 (for cleanup of a public water supply in Kansas), a standard deviation of $193,210, and a median of $150,000. The majority of the costs ranged from <$100,000 to $300,000 per site. The 311 sites included 183 sites from South Carolina that provided costs for remediation and operation and maintenance but no site assessment costs. The average cleanup cost for South Carolina was $146,132 compared to $279,022 for the remaining 128 sites.
Out of the 311 MTBE sites, 276 were service stations or other petroleum-related facilities, 32 of the sites were impacted drinking water wells/supplies, and three were hazardous waste sites. Overall, cleanup costs for MTBE contamination of drinking water wells were found to be higher than cleanup costs for USTs. The average cleanup cost of sites impacting drinking water supplies was $414,273 while the average cleanup cost for 276 service station/petroleum sites was $174,820. Excluding one major pipeline spill, the average cleanup costs for 275 service stations was $171,284. For many states, the presence of MTBE did not affect the cost of UST remediation or the technologies used for cleanup. The cost of cleanup of MTBE sites appeared controlled primarily by two factors: (1) MTBE contamination is the responsibility of most states' UST trust funds/programs, and (2) MTBE contamination impacting private or municipal drinking water wells substantially increases cleanup costs compared to cleanup costs for USTs that do not.