By Brian Winter, USA TODAY  COCODRIE, La.  Wash, rinse and repeat. And repeat.  And then repeat some more.  That's the routine for rescue workers in the Gulf of Mexico, where oil creeps back into marshes and wetlands faster than they can clean it up. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the coordinator of the federal response to the disaster, warned Monday that it could take "years" of hard work to fully scrub the Gulf Coast of all the crude.  The spill "will be contained," President Obama said in Washington. "It may take some time, and it's going to take a whole lot of effort."  The latest government projections show oil spreading farther to the east and west of the sunken Deepwater Horizon rig. Oil is coming on shore to the west of the Mississippi River delta near Cocodrie and is washing up on beaches in the Florida Panhandle.  In the marshes near the Louisiana fishing port of Cocodrie, about 80 miles southwest of New Orleans, crews of contractors on barges labored in 95-degree heat and humidity to protect foot-high grass, which provides shelter to baby crabs, shrimp and birds during the current breeding season.  On one barge, sweating workers in hazmat suits pulled brown-stained absorbent barriers from the water's surface and stuffed them into clear plastic bags for disposal. On a trailing boat, workers laid down a pristine layer of boom where the grass meets the water.  In one spot, oil appeared to have disappeared in the past few days, Coast Guard spokesman John Miller said. "That's the work of the cleanup workers, and some of it's self-cleaning, too" because oil breaks down naturally with tides and microorganisms, he said. "That's really gratifying," Miller said.  Across the bay, though, there was a setback. "Oh, no!" exclaimed Chris Griffin, 46, an area shrimper driving an airboat carrying a group of visiting journalists. Grass that had been scrubbed clean by workers in recent days was coated again in a dark, syrupy mess.  Allen says the oil has split into "hundreds or thousands" of smaller slicks scattered around the Gulf, which means that in relatively small areas such as Cocodrie, one area of shore can be clean while another nearby is covered in crude.  "They'll come back here and try to sop this back up," Miller said. "That's how it works."  The 678 cleanup workers based out of Cocodrie are digging in for a long cleanup effort, setting up trailers, communication posts and other amenities in what was just a tiny village a few weeks ago, Miller said. The staff includes Coast Guard, military, contractors and employees of BP, the energy company that operated the rig that caused the leak in April.  A whole sub-economy has sprung up to support the workers. Under a makeshift white tarp, a sign for "Granny's Laundry" offered clean clothes in 24 hours.  Griffin says he's making "decent" money as a contractor but would prefer to be back out on his shrimp boat. "The faster we can get rid of all this, the happier I'll be," he says. "But I think it's going to take a long while."  A cap over the ruptured wellhead captures more than 460,000 gallons of oil a day, Allen said. Judging by flow rate estimates supplied by the government, the cap could be collecting 37% to 77% of the oil gushing out.  BP spokesman Robert Wine said the company plans to replace the cap next month with a slightly bigger device that will "provide a better, tighter fit."  You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference.
The cap on the damaged BP oil well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico is now keeping up to 462,000 gallons of oil a day from leaking into the sea, the Coast Guard admiral overseeing the government's response to the spill said Monday.