METHUEN — Mayor William Manzi said Methuen will receive about $400,000 as part of a massive legal settlement involving America's top oil companies.

Methuen, along with Lawrence, was among 80 Massachusetts water suppliers that participated in a federal class action lawsuit against the nation's leading oil companies. Lawrence was awarded $422,000.

The defendants that settled in the case, including BP Amoco, Chevron, Shell, Valero, Citgo, Sunoco and Hess, agreed to pay water providers in 17 states. ExxonMobil refused to settle and is facing a federal trial in New York.

Methuen is going to save the money for the time being, the mayor said.

"We're going to recertify free cash and put it into reserve," Manzi said.

Lawrence received $422,000, which was built into the city budget.

The settlement also requires the companies to pay their share of treatment costs for wells owned or operated by the plaintiffs that become contaminated by the gasoline additive MTBE in the future and qualify for treatment over the next 30 years.

MTBE was added to gasoline at varying levels between 1979 and 2007, aimed to help gasoline burn cleaner and reduce air pollution. But it has leaked from underground storage tanks and contaminated nearby groundwater throughout the United States.

At extremely low levels, MTBE can give drinking and bathing water the taste and odor of turpentine, rendering it undrinkable. A drinking water advisory issued by the Environmental Protection Agency states that MTBE is a potential human carcinogen.

Scott Summy, an attorney for Baron & Budd of Dallas, Texas, was lead counsel in the suit.

Internal oil company documents discovered by Summy and his colleague Celeste Evangelisti showed that, in the mid-1980s prior to adding MTBE to gasoline on a large scale, many of the oil companies were well aware of the risks posed by MTBE to drinking water, but failed to disclose them to government regulators or to the public.

These findings led Summy to bring MTBE product liability suits across the country, according to a statement released by Baron & Budd.

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