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. 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.
cement down the well as soon as thunderstorm. admiral allen giving approval so long as it does not delay the drilling of the relief well. noaa released a statement claiming 1/4 of all the oil spilled remains in the gulf and that oil is deteriorating quickly. some gulf scientists calling the government report spin. obviously, we will stay on top of this story. the prop 8 special comment is next.
that water. as we know it keeps reappearing. national incident commander admiral thad allen has the option of pumping cement down the same choke line to seal this thing for good according to b.p. but admiral allen says whether or not he chooses to do that, he wants b.p. to continue drilling the two relief wells. that could be complete within the next two weeks. bret? kris gutierrez live in empire, louisiana, tonight. thank you. back in washington, the word is now out. two house members not so fast on the vacation plans. house member spread out all over the world are making travel arrangements to come back here to washington. national correspondent steve centanni is here to tell us why. good evening. good evening. well, you know, august is the slowest month of each year on capitol hill. the senate begins its summer recess this week. the house already left town. but this year there is a bit of a twist. the house is coming back. that is because the senate today finally overcame repu
guarantee no more oil will leak from this spot into the gulf of mexico. retired coast guard admiral thad allen saying he will not declare the well did until the relief well is scheduled sometime later this month. meanwhile, an independent scientist is challenging the government s claim that most of that oil that spilled into the gulf is somehow gone. saying the report on that matter is more spin than science. you may remember the white house and government experts told us 75% of the oil that gushed and gushed and gushed for months has just disappeared. here s how admiral allen says they got to that number. we know a certain amount was produced. that s measurable. we know a certain amount was skimmed. that s measurable. we know a certain amount was burned. that s measurable. we also know based on tests and records and data that you have a certain amount of effectiveness with dispersants and a certain amount is biodegraded. on studio b this afternoon, an independent scientist of note
once again, we have expanded our language at the trivial expense of just a little oil in the gulf of mexico. static kill. our third story in the countdown, after allowing 5 million barrels of oil to poison the ocean, bp is once again putting its hopes into a glorified injection of mud. the obvious question is, will it work? perhaps the more important one is, how will we know? in a moment, bob cavnar will join us. tests earlier in the day prompting bp to go ahead with its critical so-called static kill effort, in which once again heavy drilling mud is pumped into the top of the well. the operation intended to help plug the unstable well. it was sealed with a temporary cap last month. it could last, the operation, that is, until thursday. engineers won t know for more than a week if the procedure worked. and while bp maintains static kill may be enough to seal the well, retired coast guard admiral thad allen, who s in charge there, insists the gusher will have to be plugged from two diff