Federal environmental officials have a monumental task in cleaning up the post-Katrina toxic sludge and debris on the Gulf Coast.

What they also have, however, is an opportunity this time to get things right.

Draining the floodwaters rife with heavy metals, raw sewage, oil and other contaminants into Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River is just about the only option. But the Environmental Protection Agency and the Bush administration must be diligent in dealing with all the health risks associated with the cleanup.

The EPA, for the time being, has agreed to the discharge, which will ultimately make its way to the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi Delta. Painfully, that's the right thing to do, given the urgency and the sheer scope of the disaster. But we've only begun to see the true cost of such a massive cleanup.

Environmental health officials are right to be concerned about the lasting effects of so much industrial toxic waste: "You don't see them, you may not feel the effects for a year, two years, 20 years. And that's what we have to worry about," Sylvia Lowrance, a former director of the EPA's program dealing with toxic waste, said in published reports.

That underscores why it's crucial that the cleanup is done properly, mindful of the long-term effects on health and the environment. That means devoting adequate resources to the cleanup, both in manpower and money.

Anything less would be failing not just the people of the Gulf Coast, but anyone who expects the United States to be a good steward of the environment and protector of public health.