It’s probably easy for Mainers to understand the agony of the people on the Gulf Coast affected by the BP spill.

We simply need to close our eyes for a minute and imagine oil washing up on Old Orchard Beach, Popham Beach and along the rocky shores of Acadia National Park.

Or recreational fishing for stripers and bluefin tuna banned. Or oil slicks visible from Maine’s fabled lighthouses.

Brown clods of oil washing in and out of estuaries and inlets up and down Maine’s coastline.

Bed and breakfasts abandoned. Restaurants barren. Lobsters unavailable.

Thursday, the Associated Press reported that BP hopes to soon cap its gushing well nearly three months after this catastrophe began.

When their relief well intersects the leaking pipe, they will inject a massive dose of mud and cement that they hope will finally plug the gusher.

But, there are no guarantees.

Even when they do, this unimaginable disaster will roll on for years, perhaps even decades.

BP’s TV advertisements promise to “make things right,” but that hardly seems possible.

The tentacles of this disaster reach so deeply into the environment, economy and psyche of the Gulf Coast that true compensation seems impossible.

News reports Thursday showed white beaches that had been cleaned by crews. Yet, digging just below the surface, reporters quickly uncovered a strata of sticky black oil.

Other TV reports showed cleanup workers using rags to whip oil from the stalks of marsh grass, a truly futile gesture when 500 miles of coastline is considered.

It’s heartening to see dozens of shore birds and turtles being painstakingly cleaned then released in other states. Yet, it is unknown how many crawl off to die unnoticed for each one saved.

The damage to the economy is also so far-reaching that it is impossible to see a company even as large as BP truly squaring things with everyone who stands to lose money.

Thursday, commercial fishermen in Nova Scotia announced they would seek compensation from BP for damage to the spawning grounds of fish which will later migrate to the North Atlantic.

How will BP compensate every convenience store and gas station on the Gulf Coast for their lost revenue?

Or the tax revenue lost by states and municipalities for the loss of millions of dollars in tourist spending?

And, of course, there is the psychological toll this disaster has inflicted on the people of the Gulf Coast that can never be calculated or compensated.

Like the people of Maine, Gulf Coast residents probably take for granted the beauty and serenity of their coastline.

How does it feel to awake to the smell of lighter fluid rather than seawater and see the glistening surf replaced by dull slicks of brown oil?

The BP spill should be a wake-up call for the nation. We always knew that our human activities often degrade our environment, but the BP spill is a disaster on a scale previously unimaginable.

A way must be found to make sure the unimaginable never happens again.

[email protected]