Environment

By Eileen Fleming

New Orleans, La. – Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen says he will now take over news briefings apart from BP. Rear Admiral Mary Landry had been conducting briefings alongside BP officials since the April 20th rig explosion that preceded the oil spill.

"The goal is to create as broad a picture of this response, what's going on, and speak very frankly to the American public."

Allen praised Landry's oversight of BP's response.

By Eileen Fleming

New Orleans, La. – BP is no longer plunging heavy mud into the well. The gushing flow blasted out all 33,000 barrels of the material, and shooting debris into the well didn't work either. BP executive Doug Suttles says it's now getting robots ready to slice off a leaking pipe and fit a containment device to funnel oil to a surface ship.

By Eileen Fleming

New Orleans, La. – BP executive Doug Suttles says that after more than three days of off-and-on pumping of heavy mud into the well, it's clear the oil is still roaring into the Gulf.

"This scares everybody; the fact that we can't make this well stop flowing, or haven't succeeded in that so far."

Suttles says a relief well could take a few months.

None of us want to wait until these relief wells get down at the point that that occurs."

By Eileen Fleming

By Eileen Fleming

New Orleans, La. – Captain Shepard Smith says the research ship Thomas Jefferson normally maps wetlands and shallow waters for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It's now in New Orleans, preparing to head out next week and look for deep-sea oil.

"We're really adapting sensors that are designed for other oceanographic purposes to this very particular task, and we don't know exactly how it's going to work out yet."

By Eileen Fleming

New Orleans, La. – Landry has been the federal on-scene coordinator of the disaster since it began April 20th, when the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded and triggered the oil spill. She says she understands that people are becoming frustrated that oil keeps spilling into the Gulf of Mexico, but a military takeover wouldn't help.

"We have the military. We have the Navy here with skimmers. We have, you know, every agency of government at the federal level. We have many state agencies."

By Eileen Fleming

New Orleans, La. – BP executive Doug Suttles says it could be a day or so before it's clear that the process called a top kill' plugs the leak.

"We're taking great care to make sure that we actually complete this job successfully and we will not be rushed by that. It's too early to know if it's going to be successful."

By Eileen Fleming

By Eileen Fleming

By Eileen Fleming

New Orleans, La. – BP is planning to start the operation Wednesday morning. BP executive Doug Suttles says it should be clear by Wednesday night if it's working.

"Once it starts going down the well the rest of the flow should go that way. But probably the biggest risk with the job is that the flow actually doesn't go down the well bore but goes out the end of the riser."