NU Online News Service, Oct. 13, 2:44 p.m. EDT

While it may have faded away from the headlines, the cleanupfrom the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe has not stopped as effortscontinue along the coasts of four states.

Government officials held a news conference today saying thatmore than 16,000 workers continue to respond to the oil spill alongthe Gulf Coast shores of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi andLouisiana.

Rear Adm. Paul Zukunft, the Federal On-Scene Coordinator for theDeepwater Horizon spill, said it has been 176 days, and approachingsix months since the oil rig exploded, killing 11 people andcausing billions of dollars in losses. It has been three monthssince the oil leak was stopped and no oil has since leaked into theGulf of Mexico, he said.

Cleaning continues along beaches, what he described as deepcleaning, to dig up and separate oil that has mixed in with thesand "to restore [beaches] to their natural conditions." The areasmost affected are the Florida panhandle, barrier islands off thecoast of Mississippi and Louisiana marshlands.

Out of 16,200 people still working on the cleanup, 10,000 areworking in Louisiana alone, in what Rear Adm. Zukunft called "laborintensive and time consuming," operations.

He noted that testing of seafood from the Gulf continues andthat to-date it has been found safe. He described the food as "thesafest in the world" and said the catch from there does not deservethe stigma it has received.

Sam Walker, from the National Oceanic and AtmosphericAdministration, said there continues to be an "aggressive program"of monitoring the Gulf that is looking for hydro carbons or oildispersement contamination. More than 31,000 samples have beentaken and tested, he said, and updates on the quality of the Gulf'swaters can be expected shortly.

While the disaster in the Gulf has been costly, insurers havenot been heavily impacted by the damage. Estimates put totalinsured losses as high as $3.5 billion, primarily covering the lossof the Deepwater Horizon rig. The result has been an increase inpremiums for energy risks in the Gulf, but so far has not produceda market-wide shift in pricing.

Just yesterday, the federal government lifted the ban ondeepwater drilling, issuing new rules and setting standards thatmust be met before drilling can resume.

The new regulations, issued by the Department of the Interior,tightened standards for well design, blowout preventers, safetycertification, emergency response and worker training in theindustry.