solved a lot of big environmental problems,
particularly in this region,” he says, with
a sparkling Elliott Bay in the background.
“Forestry issues, salmon, cleaning up Puget
Sound. There’s always some residual thing we
didn’t get done, but when you look outside,
the world is cleaner and there’s every reason
to believe that it will continue to improve.”
Putting a price tag on the losses from the
Gulf oil spill is no easy matter. “The different
impacts on different states have been
challenging,” Plauché says. “Louisiana’s
impacts are coastal marshes—the Gulf’s
nursery, with oysters, crabs and other
[marine life], an ecosystem that was already
experiencing challenges from coastal erosion
processes. How do you value that? In natural
resources damage actions, that’s always an
issue: How do you put an economic value
on these resources? On a Florida beach
there’s a lot of tourism. Louisiana has
huge commercial fishery economies, but
there’s also the ecosystem itself. ... It’s an
incredibly unique ecosystem from a purely
environmental perspective. There are ways
to quantify that financially, but it’s not as
easy as with tourism dollars.”
Up the hill, Marten also sees the BP case
in terms of problem-solving. He also talks
about the larger picture, in particular the
importance of solving our energy problems.
“Energy production in this country is about
as important an issue as anything,” he
notes. “A lot of the calls now for energy
development in this country arise not simply
because of concerns about greenhouse
gases and global warming, but because of
concerns about national security.”
Plauché sees a possibility for progress
stemming from the BP litigation. “There’s
been some huge lessons learned,” he says.
Those include holding companies to higher
operating standards.
Marten says the efforts are paying off,
and observes that the facilities he works
with now are much cleaner than the ones he
dealt with in the early ’80s.
It’s no easy job.
“Keeping a sense of humor is important,”
Marten says. “These are all really
challenging issues, but at the end of the
day, you do the best you can, and you have
to remember all the other important things
in life: your family, your friends, your music
and your workouts or whatever’s important
to you. And hopefully, you leave the place a
little better than you found it.”
