Oil invades more wetlands as surf pounds Gulf coast

HOUSTON, (Reuters) – Tropical storm Alex slowed oil  spill clean-up and containment work in the Gulf of Mexico and  drove more petroleum into fragile Gulf wetlands and beaches yesterday, with any permanent fix to BP Plc’s ruptured deep-sea  well still several weeks away.

More than 10 weeks into the crisis, oil continued spewing  into the Gulf, clean-up success remained limited and a proposal  by the Obama administration to halt all deep-water drilling for  the next six months remained in limbo.

Washington’s attention has also been distracted by the  recent firing of U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal as  commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan and the fate of a huge  financial reform bill.

This week nature added to the problems as Alex crossed the  Gulf. The storm made landfall as a hurricane over northeastern  Mexico well to the west of the spill site, but its high winds  and rough seas thwarted plans by BP to expand the volume of oil  it is siphoning from the well.

The bad weather also pushed more oil-polluted water onto  the shoreline of the U.S. Gulf Coast and forced the halt of  skimming, spraying of dispersant chemicals and controlled burns  of oil on the Gulf surface for a third straight day.