Alaska's oxyfuel anguish.

• Author: Woodring, Jeannie
• Position: Interview

Although Alaska now has a one-year exemption from using oxygenated fuel, there are still questions that need to be answered in the interim.

In mid-October last year, motorists in Anchorage and Fairbanks began filling their gas tanks with a new fuel: gasoline blended with MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether).

Within days, a war of protest flared up in both cities. In less than three weeks of use, more than 150 Fairbanks residents reported physical effects from the oxyfuel: headaches, nausea, vomiting, a burning sensation in the nose or mouth, coughing, dizziness and disorientation. Before the winter ended, more than 300 Alaskans voiced complaints about the fuel.

The protests became only the tip of the controversy. Thousands of Alaskans signed petitions to ban the mandatory use of oxyfuel in the state. Gov. Walter Hickel, Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Jim Sampson and the Alaska congressional delegation mounted a campaign to nix use of oxyfuel in Alaska this winter and to find new alternatives to clean carbon monoxide out of the air in Anchorage and Fairbanks in order to comply with federal requirements of the 1990 Clean Air Act.

The issue added up to a mountain of furor and official attempts to address Alaska's oxyfuel problems. But a year later, a few important questions remain unanswered:

* Is MTBE the best alternative for reducing carbon monoxide levels in the air?

* Should Alaska be exempt from using fuel blended with MTBE until an alternative is found?

* Is MTBE a health hazard?

Here are the responses different experts give to these questions.

Is MTBE the best alternative for reducing carbon monoxide levels in the air?

If you think there are health hazards associated with MTBE, look at what carbon monoxide (CO) can do. An odorless, colorless pollutant, the gas inhibits your blood's capacity to carry oxygen to organs and tissues. If you've got chronic heart disease and breathe this stuff on a high-pollution day, you may experience chest pains. Get exposed to high levels of CO from a malfunctioning furnace, and you may risk your life or even die.

According to Steve Morris, of Anchorage's air quality office, carbon monoxide levels around the country have dropped an estimated 50 percent to 60 percent in the last ten years. Cleaner cars and IM tests account for this decrease.

In 1990, Congress passed major amendments to the Clean Air Act. One provision of the amendments, the oxygenated fuel program, would clean up another 20 percent of the nation's carbon monoxide levels. The program began on Nov. 1, 1992, in 37 areas of the United States that did not meet federal standards for carbon monoxide in the wintertime, when CO levels are higher. (Fuel combustion is less efficient in colder temperatures, which increases CO emissions. Oxygenated fuels increase the oxygen content of gasoline, improving combustion and decreasing CO emissions.)

The oxygenated fuels probably did reduce air pollution in the skies over Anchorage and Fairbanks last winter. Between Oct. 15, 1992, and March 1, 1993, the months Anchorage used MTBE-treated oxyfuel, carbon monoxide levels dropped an average 25 percent as compared with earlier years, says Morris. Leonard Verrelli, chief of air quality management for the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC), says Fairbanks had no air quality violations (for exceeding federal clean air standards) during the period it used oxyfuel, and two violations after going off the oxyfuel program. Both cities, however, experienced warmer, windier weather last year, which...