The Oil Blowout: Nothing Left to See

Jeff Haller for The New York Times

I was wondering when somebody was going to finally call the oil disaster, and no surprise, the government just did. The announcement, in advance of an NOAA report, is sure to act as both a media and a concern dispersant, with the agency reporting that a good three-quarters of the muck has simply gone “poof.”  (Gotta love the analogy in the NYT story: like sugar dissolving into tea.)

And the really great news:

The remaining 26 percent of the oil “is on or just below the surface as light sheen or weathered tar balls, has washed ashore or been collected from the shore, or is buried in sand and sediments,” the report says.

So, cool!

Yeah, there is lip service like paragraph nine:

It remains to be seen whether subtle, long-lasting environmental damage from the spill will be found, as has been the case after other large oil spills.

Overall, and in the meantime, though (Do you hear a tick, tick, tick? I don’t!), the boats are out, as are the fishing rods; the pelicans and the other birds are doing just fine, thank you; and those rigs, well, those rigs have receded back to the horizon line, the vague silhouettes hardly attracting attention anymore.