A California judge has ordered five oil companies to clean up sites contaminated with gasoline additive MTBE. The order is part of a lawsuit leveled by Communities for a Better Environment (CBE), an environmental protection group based in the San Francisco area.
The environmental organization claimed Shell, Chevron, Texaco, Equilon Enterprises, Unocal, Arco, Tosco, Exxon and Mobil knew MTBE could leak into ground water but still used the product. CBE added using it violated the state's Unfair Competition Act because it went on to indeed contaminate ground water.