Question

there was an oil spill in a coral reef. as a result, it cost the oil company a combined total of $71,096 in cleanup and repairs. the repairs alone cost $1,298. how much money did the cleanup cost?

Explanation:

Step1: Define the total and repair cost

Let the total cost be $T = 71096$ and repair cost be $R=1298$.

Step2: Calculate the cleanup cost

The cleanup cost $C$ can be found by subtracting the repair cost from the total cost. So $C=T - R$.
$C=71096-1298$
$C = 69798$

Answer:

$69798$