Wichita ? If an energy bill currently stalled in the U.S. Senate becomes law, Kansans could end up spending millions of dollars to rid the state’s groundwater of MTBE, a gasoline additive that critics say contaminates drinking water.

A portion of the proposed law would protect oil companies from lawsuits about MTBE — methyl tertiary-butyl ether. The energy bill stalled in the Senate in the final days of this year’s session, largely because of opposition to the MTBE provision. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said he would try again next year to pass it.

State funds generated by a 1-cent-a-gallon tax on gasoline already are being used to remove MTBE from some public water supplies in Kansas.

“I think it is unfair that the taxpayers of Kansas have to pay for that, when the real responsibility lies with the oil companies,” said Andrew Hutton, a Wichita lawyer who has filed lawsuits on behalf of Park City, Bel Aire, Dodge City and the Chisolm Creek Utility Authority.

The energy bill, one of President Bush’s top priorities, would exempt oil companies from lawsuits filed after Sept. 5, which would include all four filed by Hutton.

Once viewed as key to reducing air pollution from cars, the gasoline additive became an object of scorn when it was realized it was difficult to contain and clean up once it gets into drinking water. Traces have been found in almost every state, and it has the potential of becoming a cleanup problem in at least 28 states, according to government and private studies.

In states where the additive has been used more heavily, lawsuit settlements have run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

MTBE has been found to cause cancer in a small number of animal studies, but it has not been proven dangerous to humans. It does emit a strong odor that makes water undrinkable for most people, according to critics.

The oil industry contends it should be protected from lawsuits because the federal Environmental Protection Agency required that clean-air components, such as MTBE, be used.

“When those components have been studied and approved by EPA, it is reasonable to disallow a case in which the mere presence of a renewable fuel or additive in the gasoline makes it a ‘defective’ product,” Edward Murphy, an official with the American Petroleum Institute, told a Senate committee earlier this year.

In all, Kansas has begun cleanup plans near eight MTBE-contaminated wells around the state and installed MTBE treatment systems at water plants in several affected communities, including LaCrosse, Ellis, Hays, Manhattan, Manter, Park City and Salina. Costs have ranged from nearly $500,000 in LaCrosse to $20,000 in areas where the problem is less severe, said Bill Reetz, chief of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s public water supply protection unit.