It’s been a decade since 180,000 gallons of heating oil leaked into Casco Bay from the Julie N tanker.

Since then, the owner of the tanker has been forced to pay a $1 million settlement – a bargain, considering the environmental damage is irrevocable – and half the money has been used to begin restoring a portion of the Scarborough Marsh.

Even though Stroudwater Marsh, not Scarborough Marsh, was affected by the spill, using money from the settlement to restore a portion of any marsh is about as close to justice as Mother Nature is going to get in the face of such a disaster. It’s just a shame the money paid by the owner of the tanker might not cover the entire cost of restoring 30 acres of Scarborough Marsh north of Route 1.

Restoring that section of Scarborough Marsh is expected to cost more than $1 million. The project, however, has only $500,000 of the money from the settlement. The rest of the money was spent on the purchase of Flag Island ($25,000), the Fore River Trail Project ($125,000) and a vactor truck for the city of Portland that will remove oil and grease from catch basins ($350,000).

Although the crews that responded to the spill on that day in September 1996 did a heroic job, eventually cleaning up 78 percent of the oil spilled, it was inevitable that some of the oil would not be recovered. As if oil in Casco Bay wasn’t bad enough, strong winds blew oil into the Stroudwater Marsh two days after the spill, damaging a second sensitive habitat.

Those who came to clean up Stroudwater Marsh had to make a difficult decision. The cleanup effort seemed to be making the damage even worse. When people stepped on the marsh, the oil would sink deeper. Ultimately, those who had hoped to come to the marsh’s rescue had to abandon the effort and spend time and money in a place that might actually benefit – Scarborough Marsh. Restoring Scarborough Marsh would provide a habitat for the waterfowl and wading birds that lost their homes in Stroudwater Marsh.

Thankfully, in the time since Stroudwater Marsh was abandoned, nature has done a cleanup job of its own, repairing much of the damage that was done that day. In the meantime, the work on Scarborough Marsh has barely begun.

Although the section of the marsh that is being repaired with settlement money was not damaged by oil, it has suffered from a different sort of direct assault. The section of Route 1 that crosses the marsh blocks salt water from getting to the portion of the marsh that lies north of the road. The culverts that run under Route 1 are not nearly large enough to allow an adequate amount of salt water to bypass the road. Consequently, phragmites – a long-stemmed reed that’s not native to a saltwater marsh – has been flourishing in that section.

To some extent, we all share the blame for this environmental damage. We need oil to heat our homes and gas to run our cars. It’s unreasonable to think the tankers that carry the oil we depend on will never get into an accident. That doesn’t mean, however, that the companies who transport and profit from selling the oil shouldn’t be held responsible.

And, who hasn’t driven on that section of Route 1? How many people take the turnpike in protest? No one, of course.

If places like Scarborough Marsh are ones we value, then we should take steps to ensure they can continue to survive and even thrive. We can all take small steps to ensure that disasters like the Julie N won’t occur in the future by cutting down on our oil intake.

We can also learn from the mistakes of the past. The next time we need to build a road, let’s go over – or better yet around – the marsh. And, the next time a tanker spills oil in Casco Bay, let’s make the company pay for all of the cleanup – and then some.

-Brendan Moran, editor