Some portent of how lasting the damage can be

[HCE SuiGeneris]

Damage lives on from 1969 Cape oil spill

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/articles/2010/05/21/gulf_oil_spill_revives_capes_1969_nightmare/

WEST FALMOUTH — Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution scientist Chris Reddy rammed a plastic cylinder into the sticky mud of the Wild Harbor salt marsh and extracted 6 inches of muck. http://www.boston.com/video/viral_page/?/services/player/bcpid19067533001&bctid=86978672001

“Smell this,’’ he said, taking a whiff. There, faint but unmistakable, was the stench of oil.

It’s been more than 40 years since the oil barge Florida ran aground on a foggy night in Buzzards Bay, spilling close to 200,000 gallons of fuel. Some of it is still there.

At the time of the 1969 spill, lobsters, clams, and fish died by the thousands, but most people thought the harm would be temporary, reflecting what was then the conventional wisdom.

Now, as the first tendrils of heavy oil from the leaking BP well begin to suffocate Louisiana marshes, Wild Harbor’s muck shows that damage can persist for decades in fragile marshes.

More> http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/articles/2010/05/21/gulf_oil_spill_revives_capes_1969_nightmare/

[aquart]

1. A lousy 200,000 gallons.

Why BP can dump that much in what? An hour?

[HCE SuiGeneris]

2. They're working on an estimate...

;(