April 18, 2014

Just days before the four-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, BP announced that it’s ending the “active cleanup” of the Louisiana shoreline.

 

BP appears to be stopping just short of popping champagne in celebration of reaching this “milestone,” which John Mingé, chairman and president of BP America, called ”the result of the extraordinary efforts of thousands of people from BP, local communities, government agencies, and academic institutions working together.”

 

“The large-scale cleanup effort, combined with early restoration projects and natural recovery processes, is helping the Gulf return to its baseline condition,” the company’s press release goes on to say, “which is the condition it would be in if the accident had not occurred.”

 

The U.S. Coast Guard, on the other hand, has a slightly different read on the announcement. “Let me be absolutely clear:  This response is not over — not by a long shot,” Capt. Thomas Sparks, the federal on-scene coordinator for the Deepwater Horizon Response, said in a statement.