Aberdeen's city council formally accepted a $3.9 million settlement Monday night from a nationwide lawsuit over gas station chemical emissions, positioning the city to be the biggest recipient among the 21 plaintiffs in the suit.

Aberdeen expects to get between $2.5 million and $3 million after expenses and legal fees are processed, City Manager Doug Miller said during Monday's special meeting of the council.

The city took part in the lawsuit, regarding spillage at service stations of methyl tertiary butyl ether, a gasoline additive known more commonly as MTBE, after the city was forced to do remediation from MTBE contamination at a 7-Eleven station on Route 40 in 2004.

"We received the highest amount in the United States," Mayor Mike Bennett said about the settlement.

The settlement, which Miller said totals about $19 million overall, will affect six other Maryland jurisdictions: Taneytown, Chestertown, Berlin, Salisbury, Sharpstown and Worcester County/Ocean Pines.

Aberdeen's council unanimously approved the resolution accepting the settlement, as members hailed it as a major accomplishment.

"One of the reasons we have done so well is we have been documenting our expenses from the time the spill occurred," Miller said, explaining the city put in a special piping system and was controlling the spill exclusively for five or six years.

He called that a "significant effort on our part" and a major expense.

Councilwoman Ruth Ann Young said the settlement recognizes Aberdeen's hard work.

"We all can be very thankful that, indeed, back in 2005 and 2006, our city was alert to this problem and began working on some remediation and what have you, as well as we can be thankful that a lot of good record-keeping began then and continued until now," Young said.

Miller said he credited his predecessors in city government for that effort.

Councilwoman Ruth Elliott, meanwhile, thanked Young for her efforts.

Elliott said Young "kept pushing and pushing and pushing … she was the one that was locally really in there."

MTBE was widely used as an anti-knock agent and pollution reducing additive in unleaded gasoline and, though its effects on humans have not been medically documented, the additive was banned by Maryland and many other states after a number of high profile spill or ground seepage incidents in the early 2000s, including the spill in Aberdeen and a tank leak in Fallston that contaminated dozens of residential wells.

Aberdeen's settlement funds are expected to be received by June 30, 2012, the end of the current city fiscal year. The money will be put toward the city's water fund.

Miller said after Monday's council meeting that Bennett and Councilwoman Sandra Landbeck want to create a revolving loan fund for water-related capital projects.

Besides replacing the city's aging water infrastructure, which has had frequent leaks and breaks, the city administration hopes to eventually build a new water tower.

Miller said construction would depend on whether there is new development on sites such as the former property of Presbyterian Home of Maryland north of I-95.

"If developments come on the other side of [Interstate] 95, with the [Aberdeen Technology Campus] annexation and what was supposed to be Presbyterian Home, they would need a water tower over there. When we see real, bona fide development, we are going to have to put up a water tower," he said.

"It's that chicken-and-egg [situation]," Miller added regarding future development.

The city would charge the developer connection fees that would go toward building the water tower, he said. Presbyterian Home had planned to build its own tower without waiting for the city to build one. The developer pulled out of its project after the city opposed a property tax break for the new development.