Maine's action points to what may happen in other states, even though Maine is more rural than many, said John Elston, who administers New Jersey's Office of Air Quality Management. "MTBE is going to become a bigger issue over time," as further results become available on the extent of groundwater contamination and on toxicity, he said. New Jersey currently is negotiating with EPA to reduce the MTBE level in its gasoline and to design its own
standards for the environmental performance of gasoline. In Texas officials also are considering a plan that would set fuel performance standards and then allow producers to develop fuels to meet them. Last November, the New England Governors Conference commissioned a regional consulting group, the Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management, to study alternatives to MTBE in reducing air pollution in the region.
But despite EPA's provisional approval on Maine's decision to replace MTBE, the state still faces practical barriers to opting out. "The fuels that we need to use are available," Garrett said, but at a price higher than the current reformulated fuels. "We represent a small market, so it may be difficult to strike a deal with the refiners. We are hoping that some of the other states in the region may take a similar approach to ours." —REBECCA RENNER
North Carolina considers controls to protect contaminated waters More than one-third of surface sediments in North Carolina's sounds are highly contaminated with metals, pesticides, and hydrocarbons, concludes a new study from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. The study, which is part of EPA's Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) and NOAA's Status and Trends Program, is the mostcomprehensive database ever generated on the quality of North Carolina's estuaries. The study highlights a pollution problem common among eastern states, said Joel Baker, associate professor at the University of Maryland's Chesapeake Biological Laboratory. The results "are an indicator that more needs to be done about protecting water quality in the state," added Don Reuter, spokesperson for the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). The study analyzed surface sediments from 165 randomly selected sites for 41 contaminants including mercury, DDT, and PCBs. Other variables such as dissolved oxygen and presence of sediment-dwelling organisms also were measured, said Courtney Hackney, biology professor at the University of North Carolina and lead author of the report. Hackney and co-workers found that 19-36% of the sediment had more than one contaminant known to show toxicity to bottom-dwelling animals such as worms, clams, and crusta-
ceans. In 13% of the estuarine sediments, contaminant levels were so high that few or no organisms could be found. This raises questions, Hackney said, about effects of sediment contamination on food webs that are the basis of an important fishery. Even in areas where contamination is not high enough to kill organisms, it may lead to changes in community structure that favor undesirable outcomes such as harmful algal blooms Although the study was not designed to pinpoint the sources of contamination, Hackney said he suspects most of it comes from agricultural and urban runoff and air deposition. North Carolina's sounds are not well flushed by the tides, so "they trap nutrients," he explained. Hackney's study results have been incorporated into EMAP, a program designed to monitor and develop indicators for the ecolog-
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ical health of whole ecosystems. The level of contamination in North Carolina falls into line with that found in other nonurban estuaries up and down the east coast, said Baker. "The important message from this study is that it shows [a waterway] doesn't have to be adjacent to an urban area to have contaminated sediments," Baker said. Still, the extent of sediment contamination took the North Carolina officials by surprise, said Bill Holman, DENR assistant secretary. One reason the findings might be unexpected is that states have had their hands full dealing with contaminated sediments in urban areas, Baker suggested. "We've asked the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission to look at the findings and see what additional measures need to be taken to protect estuaries " Holman said. —JANET PELLEY
