What are the potential sources of MTBE and their effect on surface water and ground water?
There are point and nonpoint sources of MTBE affecting surface- and ground-water quality The concentrations of MTBE in water associated with point-source spills can be very large. Gasoline spills to the land surface and releases from above-ground and underground storage tanks are examples of point sources of contamination. As indicated previously, at ambient temperatures the solubility of pure MTBE in water is about 50,000 mg/L (Mackay, and others, 1993). However, the solubility of MTBE in water is reduced when other organic compounds are present because MTBE partitions between the organic mixture and water; a gasoline that is 10 percent by weight MTBE, reduces the solubility of MTBE in water to about 5,000 mg/L at room temperature (25°C) (Barker and others, 1991; Zogorski and others, 1997; Squillace and others, 1997).
