Environ. Sci. Technol. 2003, 37, 4524-4525
Response to Comment on “Effect of Methyl tert-Butyl Ether on the Bioconcentration and Photoinduced Toxicity of Fluoranthene in Fathead Minnow Larvae (Pimephales promelas)” We thank Mancini and Stubblefield (1) for their comments concerning our recent paper on the photoinduced toxicity of fluoranthene in the presence of the fuel additive MTBE (2). In their comment (1), several points are made concerning our study and its conclusions. However, the focus of their comment is that the concentration levels used in our laboratory tests did not reflect commonly found ambient concentrations of MTBE and fluoranthene in water. In the Introduction of our paper, we acknowledge that concentrations of MTBE >10 µg/L are not commonly reported. However, in a recent paper Mancini et al. (3) cite three publications and state that “(r)eports of MTBE in freshwater lakes and reservoirs indicated that detected MTBE concentrations ranged from
