Governor Carnahan has issued an executive order which begins the process of banning the gasoline additive MTBE in Missouri. MTBE can pollute groundwater and has been detected in two public drinking water supplies and 13 private sites in Missouri. Ethanol often is promoted as an alternative. The governor is asking the EPA for a waiver of parts of the Clean Water Act as well as the authority to drop the reformulated gasoline requirement for St Louis. The executive order calls for increased monitoring of waster supplies and calls on the General Assembly to pass legislation to ban MTBE. But a spokesman for the governor says the state could not ban the additive unless and until Congress takes action.
