Alex Prud’homme compares BP’s Gulf oil spill (3.3 million gallons and counting) to Standard Oil’s Greenpoint oil spill (17 to 30 million gallons):

We tend to think of oil spills as dramatic events — a sinking ship, a burning rig. So it’s easy to forget that across the country, hundreds of spills, many left over from a less regulated time, continue to poison groundwater and leak toxic fumes. Instead of letting the Gulf spill divert our attention yet again from slow-moving disasters like Newtown Creek, we should take it as an impetus to address problems much closer to home.