Mainly due to intrinsic biodegradation, monitored natural attenuation can be an effective and
inexpensive remediation strategy at petroleum release sites. However, gasoline additives
such as methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) can jeopardize this strategy because these
compounds often degrade, if at all, at a slower rate than the collectively benzene, toluene,
ethylbenzene and the xylene (BTEX) compounds. Investigation of whether a compound
degrades under certain conditions, and at what rate, is therefore important to the …