Thirty-one oil and petroleum refiners and distributors were sued in California state court over the contamination of water wells near Lake Tahoe by the gas additive methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE). Twenty-five defendants settled with the South Lake Tahoe Public Utility District before trial began in September 2001 for a total of $31 million in cleanup costs, of which Chevron reportedly paid $10 million. In the ensuing trial, the jury found the remaining companies – Shell Oil Co., Shell Products Co., Equilon Enterprises LLC, Texaco Inc. and Tosco Corp. – liable for selling a defective product, namely gasoline containing MTBE. Those companies eventually settled for over $28 million.