The cleanup of nearly 1,500 kilometers of the U.S. gulf coast from this year's massive BP (British Petroleum) oil spill is nearly finished. For months, in what BP calls Operation Deep Clean, crews have been cleaning oil from gulf-coast shores, but it is unlikely they will get all of it by the time students and tourists arrive for spring break at the end of February, the U.S. Coast Guard's deadline for cleaning bathing beaches. In many places, tar balls that once littered the shoreline are gone. The sand is no longer stained brown, and the surf is clear of crude. However, much oil remains under the ground, and its odor is obvious when digging more than 50 centimeters beneath the surface. "You definitely smell it. It hits you in the face," said Toney Edison, a BP cleanup worker. There is so much oil under the sand, mud, and oyster shells that tar balls may be washing up for months or years, experts say. "This process goes on and on over time," said Ed Overton, a Louisiana State University chemist who has analyzed the spill for the U.S. government. "You clean them up, they come back, you clean them up." The Coast Guard says 1,493 kilometers of beach were fouled with oil, and fewer than 50 kilometers remain to be cleaned. At the height of the spill, 47,000 people and more than 10,000 vessels were working on the disaster. Now, the army of spill responders is down to 6,000 and the fleet consists of about 380 vessels.
