When something sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t true. Thus, when federal researchers announced early that only 25 percent of the oil from the mammoth spill that gushed into the Gulf of Mexico for nearly three months remained in the water, serious skepticism was warranted. And when a team of scientists from the University of Georgia challenged that optimistic federal number, serious attention was warranted, too.

The new academic study found that up to 79 percent of the oil, along with toxic byproducts, is still in the Gulf — and that those petrochemicals will linger in the ecosystem for a long time. Professor Charles Hopkinson, senior investigator on the UGA project, wrote: “One major misconception is that oil that has dissolved into water is gone and, therefore, harmless. The oil is still out there, and it will likely take years to completely degrade.”

Hopkinson added that most of the oil classified by the government as “dispersed, dissolved or residual” remains in the water — much of it in large plumes far below the surface. That sounds like a predictable result of any well blowout roughly a mile underwater. ...

And though government officials say Gulf seafood is now safe for human consumption, scientific debate persists on how much damage has already been — and how much more will be — inflicted by the spill. ...

And just because Louisianans dependent on energyindustry jobs generally support continued drilling off their coast doesn’t mean South Carolinians should support proposals to drill off our coast. As grimly demonstrated by the BP spill, such an enterprise would jeopardize not just our state’s precious environmental heritage but the powerful economic asset — and tourist magnet — of our pristine coastline.

So don’t fall for the rosy-scenario notion that history’s biggest peace-time oil spill (so far) won’t do big and lasting harm. Don’t fall, either, for the easy-money pitch that South Carolina should get into the risky business of offshore drilling.

The (Charleston) Post and Courier