mr. chairman , today we are about to further our independence on foreign sources of energy . 
i fully support that effort and urge my colleagues to do so as well . 
however , one item of particular concern to me is the contamination of groundwater by mtbe -- a fuel additive that has been fully supported and promoted by this congress and our federal government . 
it is interesting to note that mtbe was first approved for use as a fuel additive by the environmental protection agency , epa , in 1979 . 
in 1988 , the epa approved the use of mtbe once again and significantly increased the amount of it that could be used in fuel . 
in 1990 , congress passed amendments to the clean air act which mandated a fuel oxygenate . 
in its regulations implementing those amendments , the epa once again approved mtbe for use as an additive in gasoline . 
these three instances show direct promotion by the congress and the federal government of the use of mtbe . 
it is important to point out that these actions , including the amendments to the clean air act , were vigorously supported by both parties in congress and many national environmental organizations which hailed mtbe as a great victory for clean air . 
while it 's true that mtbe is a great product for cleaner air , it unfortunately contaminates the water . 
in fact , my constituents in south lake tahoe have personal experience with this problem because in 1996 they discovered that their water supply had been contaminated by mtbe . 
consequently , 18 out of 34 wells in south lake tahoe were shut down or suffered limited pumping to contain the contamination . 
as a result , my constituents lost 3.4 million gallons of water a day . 
because i believe strongly that the federal government is responsible for mtbe contamination , i fought for and succeeded in getting the federal government to participate in the cleanup of mtbe from south lake tahoe water by authorizing and appropriating $ 1 million in the lake tahoe restoration act of 2000 , p.l . 
105-506 . 
that appropriation was just a drop in the bucket , however , as the total estimated cleanup of mtbe in south lake tahoe is just over $ 69 million . 
these funds will be used for a combination of treating contaminated sources and drilling new wells to replace the bad ones . 
the city of santa monica , ca , has also experienced the impacts of fowled water quality resulting from mtbe and recently settled its lawsuit for just over $ 325 million . 
mr. speaker , these are just two of many examples of the serious problems caused by the use of mtbe . 
in fact , to date , the legal fees , costs , and settlement for mtbe litigation in california is over $ 750 million alone . 
furthermore , the water industry estimates that full cleanup of mtbe contamination across the country will be over mr. chairman , mtbe contamination is a serious problem in california , and it is time for the federal government to admit that its overt promotion of mtbe is a major reason why we now find this additive in the water supplies of our communities . 
for this reason , i am an ardent supporter of expanding the leaking underground storage tank , lust , fund and am happy that chairman barton has agreed to increase the fund 's expenditures to over $ 2 billion over 5 years . 
the expanded lust fund will give local communities the necessary resources to identify cleanup needs and proceed with actual cleanup efforts . 
but more must be done in order to further protect communities like south lake tahoe . 
representative charlie bass has offered a proposal that would create a task force to seek a resolution to the mtbe cleanup issues in both new hampshire and california . 
i think this proposal is an important first step , and i encourage the house leadership to take a serious look at representative bass 's proposal and work towards a more comprehensive solution for mtbe contamination in our communities . 
in the end , mr. chairman , the federal government helped cause this problem and the federal government needs to help resolve it . 
the solution is not more litigation and lawsuits , but recognition that the federal government pushed mtbe on our communities , and now our communities need our help . 
