When you unveiled this zorchy new design for an oil platform, you said there was no way anything adverse could happen. This from today’s Seattle Times: “In its 2009 exploration plan and environmental-impact analysis for the well, BP suggested it was unlikely, or virtually impossible, for an accident to occur that would lead to a giant crude-oil spill and serious damage to beaches, fish and mammals.” It’s filings for the Deepwater Horizon well with the Minerals Management Service repeatedly downplayed risk and said any spill that did occur wouldn’t impact land because the well was so far from the shore.

That was nearly 2 million gallons and 11 lives ago (human lives: who knows the animal toll) and my friends in New Orleans say it has smelled like oil there for a couple days now.

If you are going to use new and untried technology, simply saying a disaster is unlikely is not an alternative to formulating a plan for improbable events. It is incumbent upon you to think of the unthinkable and plan for it.

Now we have a situation where the best case for a fix is a week to 10 days away. Meanwhile, the well gushes tens of thousands of gallons of oil every day — estimates range from 5,000 to 50,000 or higher per day. The worst-case scenario? It will be three months before a parallel well can be drilled and Deepwater Horizon is capped.

You say you will pay for any damages. I hope you mean really pay for it, not fight legitimate claims for decades a la Exxon and the Valdez. I hope you will pay to restore the wetlands to pristine conditions, which could take decades. You need to stay for the duration. You need to reimburse the fishermen who’s livelihoods are impacted.

I don’t know how you will compensate the American public. Aside to the damage done to one of the most beautiful and unique coastal ecosystems in the world, we get around a quarter to a third of its seafood from the gulf. If we can’t get it from there, we’ll be paying more for it to come from somewhere else. And given the dangers of some seafood from some foreign countries and the fragility of stocks in other fisheries (you can read about what’s safe from Seafood Watch, through the Monterey Bay Aquarium), it could be that we have to forgo or reduce fish intake altogether.

Do us all a favor: do the right thing and take responsibility and put this all right. Then make sure you don’t use technology you can’t fix when it breaks, and fix quickly.

Lisa