BP Well-Killing Process Starts in a Week

Thick oil with the consistency of cake batter is now coating a large section of marsh grass in Pass a Loutre, just off of Plaquemines Parish.

NEW ORLEANS - The government's oil spill chief says workers expect to begin the two-step process of finally killing BP's blown-out well in a week. Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen says Monday that the so-called "static kill" — in which mud and cement are blasted into the top of the well — should start on Aug. 2. If all goes well, the final stage — in which mud and cement are blasted in from deep underground — could begin Aug. 7. BP has said the bottom kill could take days or weeks, depending on how well the static kill works.
Tropical storm forecasts last week forced crews to suspend their work 40 miles (64 kilometres) off the Louisiana coast for several days. Allen says he'll order an evacuation again if a similar storm forms.

The weather is not cooperating but at least a slow kind of progress is being made. And it sounds a lot more positive than it has in the past few months. Now the public would like an outline of BP's mop-up operation. We would like some assurance that there  is a definite and immediate plan of action in place to clean up the devastation on a larger scale than has happened so far. The latest calculation suggests the clean-up and restoration of the environment and the compensation of people who lost their livlihoods will cost around sixty billion dollars.