""The total area and volume of the Gulf is not pertinent.""

True to form, ducking a pertinent point with a personal opinion presented as fact.

I was not one of those who initiated comparisons with other spills, but, since those comparisons are being used to blacken BP with accusations of causing greater damage than any others, a comparison of the water volumes in proportion to the volume of the spill is not only pertinent, it is necessary in order to make your case stand up.

The size of the Gulf is not pertinent, nor is the size of Prince William sound. What is pertinent is the volume of water in each case which was polluted, and the volume of pollutant in each case.

I started out my working life as an analytical chemist, and am fully conversant with the concept of dilution, for which the two parameters are required. By the tone of your response, You are not.

Don T.