The oil has either vanished like magic or turned into delicious and delightful sweet tea, with the dispersants mixed in like yummy sugar. So BP has dispersed 10,000 cleanup workers. Mac McClelland:
On July 13, the Deepwater Horizon Joint Command was reporting 46,000 responders. On July 23, it was down to 30,000, and the numbers have hovered around the low 30s since. Included in this tally are some Coast Guard and National Guard staff, but BP and subcontractors comprise the vast majority. [...]
The scaleback is set to continue. Supervisors say they're supposed to break down to just a "skeleton crew" by the end of September, so hopefully the media myth that there's no more oil anywhere comes true. "Everything still changes day to day," the supervisor told me. "You don't know when a bunch of oil's gonna pop up."
Amazing how the worst water-based oil spill in history just disappears in a matter of days. And with it, 10,000 paid workers. All gone! The oil done R-U-N-N-O-F-T...
...even though there's still the equivalent of five Exxon Valdez spills out there. Oh, and 1.8 million gallons of chemical dispersant.
"I mean, there's a good question today if you're standing down there on the gulf, and that is, 'Where is the oil?'" Brit Hume, May 16