Elroy, it's now the 21st century and as you are aware, for decades there has been leaky tank avoidance. In 1975, one of my first jobs in the oil industry, in Texaco Canada Limited, was to get rid of leaking rusty underground tank potential problems by compulsorily selling potentially leaking tanks to customers or digging them up if the customer didn't want to take over the responsibility.
In New Zealand, the risk was resolved long ago too and we don't need those magical rays you mentioned. When you worked for Chevron, I doubt that it was in the last 10 years, and I doubt that you have written any checks to cover leaking underground tanks for decades rather than years.
Elroy, the spills by motorists on forecourts don't contaminate ground water. As you know gasoline is highly volatile and puddles of petrol aren't left lying around on forecourts. Even if nobody does anything about it - it evaporates quickly.
You'd be hard-pressed to find leaking tanks these days. The liabilities are too high and have been [in Texaco's and BP's view] for decades. I haven't been involved in the petrol distribution business for nearly 20 years, but I would be amazed if BP is still prepared to empty a truckload of petrol into an insecure tank.
< Your comment that "leaks are mostly avoided these days" is simply delusional.> Elroy, you are obviously getting senile. The vast effort to upgrade storage tanks to avoid exactly the problem of leaks was done by engineers who know how to stop petrol getting into groundwater and otherwise out of containment in the distribution system.
Leaks, spills and even evaporative losses are vastly reduced compared with the days of a recycled iron tank being dumped into dirt and not even strapped down are long gone. Leaks are mostly avoided these days.
MTBE isn't a cunning evil-doing jihadist. It's just another chemical of which there are thousands in bulk storage around the world. MTBE isn't a "disaster" when used in gasoline. If there's a leak of gasoline, the pollution by the gasoline is worse than the MTBE, which at least will dilute by absorption into the water and be adsorbed into clays and various dirts during its subterranean travels. The gasoline will float. If there's a spill of MTBE, it could be hosed down and washed into the ocean with no big deal. Gasoline and diesel float and make a flammable mess.
Here's some guff on MTBE in water and air. I'd be more worried about the oils from tyre wear, drips of engine oil, and other chemicals being released into ground water. But all of those are trivial compared with the vast tonnages of diesel particulates and unburned fuel which is sprayed around from umpty million diesel vehicles. Don't forget wood and coal that's burned and dumps particulate and sticky muck downwind.
Then there are the thousands of tons of other chemicals sprayed around into the environment, and they are intended to be sprayed.
MTBE is distributed in deliberately closed systems, by an industry which is treated like a pariah and which people love to sue, for use in highly volatile fuels with complete combustion the aim.
It would be easier these days to escape from Alcatraz than an oil company distribution system. Yeah, yeah, BP lost a bit of crude oil from the Alaskan pipeline. Big deal. You won't be seeing an MTBE Exxon Valdez any time soon. And if a tanker full of MTBE did sink, it would be diluted by umpty billion tons of ocean water.
MTBE being soluble in water is a solution, not a problem. Hose it down! Problem solved. Putting out fires made of methanol, ethanol and MTBE are easier than those made by petrol. You just squirt water on them. Dilution puts them out.
MTBE clean up costs in the state of New Jersey are no doubt borne by those who did the spillings. And, it's a profit-making opportunity for the community as they can sue the companies which did the damage and impose exemplary damages.
It's just economics and engineering Elroy. MTBE is fine. So is nuclear power. So is CO2 emission. Burning coal = no problem but in fact is a solution [to the incipient continuation of the ice age].
Yes, plopping mild steel tanks unprotected in the ground is a bad idea for petrol, whether containing MTBE or ethanol. If tanks don't leak, then MTBE is as good as ethanol if it's cheaper. Which, given the price of methane, I suppose it is.
Mqurice
PS: You being rude is a bit childish Elroy. Telling me I've got the common sense of a 5 year old, as well as other insults, is what a 5 year old might do. Your arguments aren't improved by being obnoxious. It's also contrary to SI terms of use. |
