The "A-Whale" fiasco appears to be a joint fail between the Coast Guard and the EPA - among many other things they've had to sit around and wait for an EPA permit before they can start the work, and now that they're actually in the gulf there are even more problems:
Well, that does have something to do with oil skimmers, and something to do with the EPA, but it doesn't support what anamax said. Obviously I did search google for terms like "EPA oil skimmer", which came up with this "A Whale" stuff and little else - so I was wondering if anamax had a source which addressed his particular claims (apparently not). The sand berms thing seems to be inaccurately paraphrased by anamax as well.
The sandberms fiasco was the work of the Fish and Wildlife Service: http://www.wdsu.com/news/23997498/detail.html
The "A-Whale" fiasco appears to be a joint fail between the Coast Guard and the EPA - among many other things they've had to sit around and wait for an EPA permit before they can start the work, and now that they're actually in the gulf there are even more problems:
http://www.dailypress.com/news/oil-spill/dp-nws-oil-skimmer-...
http://www.wwltv.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/A-Whale-Of-A-Skimme...