By David Vitrano

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – April 20 marked the one-year anniversary of the explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that triggered the largest oil spill in the history of the United States. Although the well has long since been capped and most of the cleanup workers have moved on, much confusion remains concerning the state of the Gulf Coast.

Accordingly, last week L’Observateur asked visitors to its website what they thought about the cleanup effort. Most respondents had a pretty pessimistic view of the situation.

Nearly 40 percent of voters said they thought the cleanup only targeted surface oil and that much oil still remains underwater and beneath the coastal soil. An equal percentage of voters thought the Gulf region would never be the same again.

Furthermore, an additional 10 percent said there was still much work to do.

Just 10 percent of voters thought BP and state agencies did a good job of cleaning up the oil, though there is still some work to do, and fewer than that thought the job was pretty much done.

A full breakdown of results follows:

• 3 percent of voters chose “For all intents and purposes, the cleanup is done.”

• 10 percent of respondents chose “BP and state agencies did a pretty good job, but there is still some work to do.”

• 10 percent of respondents chose “Although the workers have left for the most part, there is still much cleaning to do.”

• 39 percent of respondents chose “The cleanup only targeted the superficial oil. Now they must look at oil beneath the surface of the water and below ground on the coast.”

• 39 percent of respondents chose “No matter what they do, the Gulf Coast will never be the same again.”