Question:
"The tendency for MTBE to separate from the gasoline mixture into groundwater could lead to widespread drinking water contamination," EPA officials warned in an internal memo dated April 1987. The memo noted that such contamination from underground storage tanks had already occurred in four states.

any ideas?

Answer: The memo and other documents surfaced as part of a lawsuit filed in San Francisco Superior Court against the nation's largest oil companies that accuses them of engaging in business practices that they knew would lead to widespread contamination of California's groundwater.

Several of the companies, including Texaco and Shell, are scheduled to submit a settlement in the court tomorrow, in which they agree to assess and clean up MTBE contamination sites in California for which they are responsible.

The settlement, which could result in an outlay of millions of dollars in cleanup costs, for the first time permits hefty penalties if the companies do not take corrective action.

The oil industry has acknowledged it was aware of MTBE groundwater contamination in the late 1980s. But unsealed documents in the court case show that the companies actually knew of the problem as early as 1981.