Katrina and Rita damaged hundreds of drilling rigs and 40% of the underwater pipelines. It damaged aboveground facilities in Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes including the 672,000 gallon spill in Meraux, Louisiana, an upscale subdivision near Chalmette.

In all, Geotimes reports over 8 million gallons of oil were spilled from hundreds of leaks including two big ones near Buras in Plaquemines parish. The Wall Street Journal compared this volume to the 11 million gallons spilled by the Exxon Valdeze in Alaska's Prince William Sound in America's greatest maritime oil spill disaster.

If somone tries to minimize the environmental damage suffered by Louisiana from oil spills in the wake of Katrina, just remind them of these facts. It is just that there was so much more environmental damage from other sources that the damage from oil spills has been overlooked, except perhaps in Mereaux where residents ultimately received a $325 million settlement from Murphy oil.