MTBE Risks and Issues

MTBE Risks and Issues: Setting Taste and Odor Drinking Water Standards For grades 8-12, this program teaches students about MTBE, methyl tertiary butyl ether, in drinking water. The 28-page teacher’s booklet teaches students about MTBE as a drinking water contaminant through discussions of the physiology of taste and odor, how taste tests are conducted, how drinking water standards are set and the role of science in public policy. Officials are now in the process of phasing out use of the gasoline additive MTBE, which helps help fuel burn cleaner, because it has contaminated groundwater wells throughout the country. This program was developed by the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at UC Davis, and edited and formatted by the Foundation. The MTBE curriculum includes the Layperson’s Guide to Drinking Water and the July/August 1998 Western Water “The Challenge of MTBE: Clean Air vs. Clean Water?”