fun as watching cement harden. on day 108 of the disaster, the success of bp s latest attempt to plug the gushing well hinging in our third story on watching cement harden, literally. at this hour, bp engineers now monitoring the well to determine the effectiveness of the cement they finished pouring down the well, needing to wait at least a day for the compound to set. it doesn t really dry. today s procedure coming a day after they pumped enough mud down to reverse the flow of the oil. admiral thad allen having given his permission for the cement only if bp continued with the digging of the relief wells. the gusher will have to be plugged from two directions. think of the relief well as bottom kill. bp still refusing to say what they will be doing with the relief wells. kent wells saying, we need to take each step at a time.
operation, that operation went very well. it appears to be performing as expected. we ll be doing more testing of that cement operation later today and between admiral allen and kent wells i ll provide more update. but that has gone well. by almost all accounts the biggest oil spill in history is winding down with most of the oil either collected, dissolved, or dispersed, but there are lingering concerns about the impact the oil and dispersants have had on seafood. the government says the level of testing is unprecedented. we re constantly out there testing. we re working with people. we re trying to get the message out, and i think a real key part is that we won t go in to open an area until the oil is gone. it cannot be present. there cannot be any risk it would get reoiled. if it happened, we would have to go back. taking a look at top stories. grammy winning musician wyclef
down to reverse the flow of the oil. the admiral repeating again today that to be safe the gusher will have to be plugged from two directions. think of the relief well as bottom kill. bp still refusing to say what they will be doing with the relief wells. kent wells saying, we need to take each step at a time. clearly we need to pump cement. if we do it from the top we might alter what we do with the well. the ultimate objective is getting this well permanently sealed. admiral allen responding, the well will not be killed until we do the bottom kill and do whatever needs to be done. i am the national incident commander and i issue the orders. wait, there s more. oil industry expert bob kavnar warning us engineers might reget cementing the well from above too soon. with today s procedure, he said
clearly we need to pump cement. if we do it from the top we might alter what we do with the relief well. but the relief well is still part of the solution. the ultimate objective is getting this well permanently sealed. admiral allen responding, the well will not be killed until we do the bottom kill and do whatever needs to be done. i am the national incident commander and i issue the orders. this will not be done until we do the bottom kill. wait, there s more. oil industry expert bob cavnar warning us engineers might regret cementing the well from above too soon. with today s procedure, he said bp sealed off the only way it has to tell what s really been going on below the surface. something it will want to know when the company intercepts the blown-out well with the relief well. if any part of the well in between the cement plug above and relief wells below has ruptured, they will have no way of gauging the pressure to find out whether or not that has happened. that the well hasn t
confidence in the well kill, chief operating officer doug subtles is returning to his regular job in houston. he has been on the coast more than three months, managing bp s response to the week. here is settells speaking in the last hour. just like the static kill, the operation went very well, and appears to be performing as expected. we ll be doing more testing of that cement operation later today. and between admiral allen, we ll provide more updates. but that has gone well. no significant oil has leaked into the gulf for 22 days now. that s when bp effectively shut down the well with the containment dome. it was thought the oil week could damage louisiana s fragile shoreline for years to come, but we ll take a closer look at this week s assessment by a federal agency that much of the oil is gone. first, though, our random moment in 60 seconds.