Dealing with the damage

As a student who spent three weeks in New Orleans this past January planting Marsh Hay in the bayous of coastal Louisiana, I am heartbroken and outraged by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

As the oil continues to gush, I have no doubt that every delicate plant will be destroyed by the spill, rendering futile the hours I and other students spent trying to refortify the endangered habitat. Each day, the devastation to that region’s environment, wildlife, and economy increases with no end in sight.

Back in my home state of Washington for the summer, I see how big-oil companies have pushed their destructive agenda from one coast to another in this country. The biggest source of water pollution in the state comes from toxic runoff from our streets —carrying with it pollution from oil and other hazardous chemicals [“Puget Sound’s slow oil spill,” Opinion, May 20].

But instead of doing the right thing and paying their fair share for the cleanup costs, oil companies launched a campaign of misinformation to stand in the way of efforts to ensure clean, safe water in Washington. Once again, big oil companies are proving that their interests lie in multibillion-dollar profits, not in the health of our environment and communities.

From the catastrophic spill in the Gulf of Mexico to the slower seepage of oil into Puget Sound, we cannot continue to let oil companies off the hook. We can no longer afford to pick up their part of the tab. It’s high time our lawmakers hold oil companies accountable for the damage we have to deal with.

— Morgan Flake, Occidental College, Los Angeles, Calif.