EAST GRAND TERRE ISLAND, La. — Dig 2 feet into the sand on this wind-swept beach and up comes the foul smell of oil. The unmistakable whiff of crude eight months after the BP spill is one of the last in-your-face reminders of the long, tainted summer on the Gulf Coast.
For months, crews have been scouring the Gulf Coast’s sandy shores for oil — digging, scraping, tilling and sifting beach after beach. It’s unlikely they will get all of it by the time college students begin flocking to the Gulf Coast for spring break at the end of February. There is so much oil under the sand, mud and oyster shells that tar balls might be washing up for months, if not years.
“This process goes on and on over time,” said Ed Overton, a Louisiana State University chemist who has analyzed the spill for the federal government. “You clean them up, they come back, you clean them up.”
The Coast Guard says 928 miles of beach were fouled and fewer than 30 miles are left to clean.
