Do you remember NAFTA? NAFTA is the North American Free Trade Agreement, and it was the subject of much debate several years ago when the Agreement was being negotiated.

One of the concerns that many people expressed was that a trade agreement such as NAFTA might some how limit the ability of theUnited States to protect its own people and enforce its own laws. It seemed like a radical, unfounded concern to many. After all, how could a treaty largely involving Mexico interfere with our ability to sell rule?

Guess what. The concern was valid, as evidenced by perhaps the most ridiculous legal action ever filed on American soils. What I am about to explain to you even makes the coffee in the lap case seem tame and mundane.

At issue is the gasoline additive called MTBE. MTBE was supposed to make gasoline burn more efficiently. Since the 1990s, gasoline producers have been required by our federal EPA to add this chemical compound to gasoline sold in many states. The theory was simple. MTBE was supposed to make gasoline burn more efficiently, thereby cutting down on smog.

But MTBE is a failure. It has not worked. But worse, MTBE has leaked into underground water drinking supplies throughout the United States, and consequently has led to the shutting down of many drinking water wells. In California alone, municipalities have had to shut down drinking water wells serving their communities and look for alternate supplies of drinking water.

Just recently, nearly 150 residents of a New Jersey community were forced to sue three major oil companies for polluting their private drinking water wells with MTBE. Litigation abounds throughout United States and some experts suggest that we have yet to see the tip of the iceberg.

As a result of this MTBE nightmare, many states and the federal government are entertaining legislation to permanently ban the use of MTBE within their jurisdictions. A congressional subcommittee just recently approved such legislation and the states are at different stages of the law making process.

California ordered MTBE eliminated from its gasoline supply by the end of 2002. Probably, California should have ordered that it be eliminated immediately. But at least California has reacted strongly.

You would hope that would be the end of the story. This MTBE is no good, but the feds shoved it down everyone's throat, and California is trying to undo some of the damage by banning MTBE. However, this is hardly the end of the story.

Relying on NAFTA provisions , a Canadian company called Methanex claims it should be entitled to compensation because it is a large manufacturer of MTBE and stands to lose, it says, $970 million as a result of the California ban. Methanex makes these allegations in a claim that it has filed with a trade tribunal.

What this Canadian company is saying is that California, and implicitly the federal government and any other state, cannot protect its citizens from being poisoned by MTBE. Instead, we are supposed to sit back and continue to drink MTBE and become sick and watch our property values fall all in the name of free-trade with Canada and with Mexico.

So the concerns that people had with NAFTA and a suggestion that it would take away our ability to self govern, were indeed well-founded. Of course, this is an absolutely ludicrous situation. And this Canadian company, and the Canadian government as well, should be ashamed.

It is important that we make it known that Americans will not tolerate this kind of business conduct. An organization called OXYBUSTERS, which has long fought for the elimination of MTBE from our gasoline supplies, has posted an easy to use (fill in your name and click) letter on its web site addressed to the president of Methanex. That letter informs the president of that company that Americans will not tolerate these kinds of practices. May I urge you to go to: "http://www.oxybusters.com/nafta/methanex.html". This is a time where your voice counts.

Published: September 21, 2000

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Stuart Lieberman, Esq. writes about environmental issues. He was a New Jersey Deputy Attorney General assigned to the State Department of Environmental Protection from 1986 to 1990. Currently he is a shareholder in the environmental law firm of Lieberman & Blecher, P.C., located in Princeton, New Jersey. Stuart can be reached at slieberman@liebermanblecher.com.