The news of the big oil well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico just gets worse — with no solution in sight.
The problem started when a Gulf of Mexico oil well called Deepwater Horizon exploded on April 20. Bad weather and choppy seas have added to the difficulty of providing relief and solution.
Unwanted tar balls from the uncontrolled oil well now reportedly have hit all of the states surrounding the Gulf, causing terrible environmental and economic problems for millions of people.
June and July are popular Gulf beach months — but not this year. Gooey globs of oil — somewhat like tar — are washing up on the beaches, scaring away the usual sunbathers, swimmers and beach walkers. That, of course, means losses to hotel and motel folks, restaurants, stores and everybody else who usually does summer beach business.
Shrimpers and fishermen are stymied and losing money.
Frantic efforts by British Petroleum to stem the flow of uncontrolled oil and pay related costs have hit more than $3 billion, so far.
And let us not forget the 11 lives that were lost in the blowout.
Efforts are under way to drill a couple of relief wells, about a mile deep, to control the oil flow. But who knows when — or if — those wells will be effective?
Meanwhile, the big skimmer ship called “A Whale” and many smaller ones are doing what they can to capture some of the oil before it gets to the beaches. But that’s only “a drop in the bucket,” compared with millions of gallons of oil “not in the bucket” as the problem continues.
The damage continues and the costs rise as lots of people are doing their best to solve a huge problem.