Roger Wood

New Hampshire state officials are celebrating the U.S. Supreme Court decision that upholds a $236 million dollar verdict in favor of the state.

It specifically involves the pollution of public and private water wells by the chemical additive MTBE. Used to boost Octane in gasoline, New Hampshire banned the chemical in 2007. The high court refused to hear ExxonMobil’s appeal of earlier court decisions that the state could unlock a trust fund that contains the money.

Gov. Maggie Hassan called the Supreme Court decision “the culmination of more than a decade of efforts by countless people across the state,” and noted that “access to clean drinking water is fundamental to public health and public safety, critical to a thriving economy and our high quality of life.”

Attorney General Joseph Foster is calling the successful battle “the most significant environmental victory in the history of the state.” And Department of Environmental Services Commissioner Tom Burak said, “This legacy fund will provide the resources and mechanisms necessary to implement a comprehensive strategy to ensure that MTBE contamination is identified and remediated, and that existing public and private water supplies are protected against future contamination.”

As required by statute, after attorneys’ fees and costs, 10 percent of the $236 million dollar verdict plus interest will go into the State’s Rainy Day Fund. The remainder will be deposited into the New Hampshire Drinking Water and Groundwater Trust Fund, which was created by Senate Bill 380, bipartisan legislation that Gov. Hassan signed into law in March of this year.

Some 21 other fuel suppliers had settled with the state, providing $90 million dollars for remediation of polluted wells. Roger Wood extensively covered the MTBE controversy, and here’s a segment of a series he produced.

Again, a major victory for New Hampshire in cleaning up water supplies contaminated with MTBE. For InDepthNH.org, thanks to major underwriter Northeast Delta Dental, I’m Roger Wood.