there is nothing that i can tell you in a chemical lab that you can t herndon about the safety of the water from a bathing purpose by looking at it and smelling it. reporter: it looked pretty good to this family vacationing from oklahoma. they played in the surf. they hadn t seen the avoid the water sign and no one told them not to go in. if they were warning you to stay out of the water? we would not have gotten in. reporter: the bottom line seem to be this. scientifically no one is sure whether the water is safe. you are on your own. just smell it first. cnn, pensacola, florida. bp s response to the spill hasn t impressed anyone. if you think you can do better, have we got video game for you. it is called crisis in the gulf. your mission is simple. stop the oil rising to the
E.p.a. gives them concrete guidance. until we get a standard from the e.p.a. on the levels of the petro chemical in the water so we don t suggest people go into the water specifically for that, we can t do anything. there is nothing that i m going to be able to tell you in a chemical lab that you can t learn about the safety of the water by looking at it and smelling it. reporter: it looked pretty good to had family, vacationing from oklahoma. they played many the surf. they hadn t seen the avoid the water sign and no one told them not to go in. if they were warning to you stay out of the water we would not have gotten in. reporter: the bottom line seems to be this, right now scientifically no one is sure whether the water is safe. you re on your own. just smell it first. john zarrella, cnn, pensacola, florida. you probably know the word
Belly to be used. this thing is brilliant. dave: i don t want to get too caught up in the numbers. some say this could actually double the skimming going on in the gulf it sucks up 21 million gallons of oily water every day this thing could be a game changer there in the gulf if it works. others have said this may not make much difference. clearly contrasting opinions. alisyn: they are testing it now. if it works they will bring it in. that s good news much the relief wells may be finished before they originally thought there a glimmer of hope today obviously we will stay on it. meanwhile lisa jackson, the eastern administrator has been touring some of the beaches and she says something that is basically common sense it f. your beach smells like a gas station it s probably not safe. listen to her. from a common sense progressive, there is nothing that i m going to be able to tell you in a chemical lab that
Changed forever. i have not seen the beaches like this on any holiday weekend, much less july 3. it s barren and there are a lot of tar balls out there. i think we ll see them for a long time. we normally get in the water. we have never been here before where you couldn t get in the water. reporter: lisa jackson, e.p.a. administrator also took a walk along the beach today and talked with the crews scooping up the tarballs off the surface of the sand. we asked her about the lack of specifics determining if the water was safe. here is what she had to say. from a common sense perspective, there is nothing i ll tell you in a chemical lab that you can t learn about the safety of the water from a bathing purpose, by looking at it and smelling it. reporter: there is a disagreement here between the county and the health department if it s typically safe and what the long-term health effects may be. no federal guidelines right now on the long-term health effects.
A chemical lab that you can t learn about the safety of a water from a bathing purpose by looking at it and smelling it. reporter: it looked pretty good to the van slitz family vacationing from oklahoma. they played in the surf, they had not seen the avoid the water sign, and no one told them not to go in. if they were warning you to stay out of the water i would not have gotten in. reporter: okay. the bottom line is this. right know scientifically nobody is sure whether the water is safe. you are on your own, just smell it first. john zarrella, cnn, pensacola, florida. scorching hot, even for july. new york s jtk airport is trying a high of 100 degrees today. the excessive heat watch has been posted for parts of the northeast. meteorologist reynolds wolf is in the cnn center. remember when you were on the gulf coast a couple weeks ago