invest with confidence. welcome back. bp says the static kill effort has gone swimmingly. for people liing along the coast, this is far from over. the economic impact is devastating. they ve been out of work for months. thousand they face the task of convincing a skeptical public that the fish is fine and the gulf is open for business. we re joined by pete gernka. how is the fish? how is the food? how are the oyster beds? from what i m hearing from the oyster men, we have oyster beds in bad shape from the silt from the diversions they opened up to keep the river out. we have some oyster beds that should be in good shape.
as they continue to push it in there, gradually the pressure of the mud its will become so great that it starts pushing that oil down and, at some point, you ll reach a balance point, they hope, where no longer will the oil have the ability to force it out. that s when it is static, nothing is moving. the downward force is equal to the upward force. they say at that time you could take the cap off entirely and nothing would move. of course, they want to get it permanently sealed so that won t happen. tonight they re anxiously watching to see if this first step can work. anderson. tom foreman, appreciate it. thanks, tom. we ll continue to follow the progress of the static kill. joe johns has a 360 bulletin. joe? police in connecticut may have a motive in this morning s murder/suicide that left nine people dead. manchester police say an employee at a beer distribution company killed eight colleagues before turning the gun on himself. he just left a disciplinary
as we said at the top of the program, bp has started efforts to hopefully seal the ruptured well for good. it s called static kill and involves pumping heavy mud into the well. it s new that is everyone affected by the spill obviously has been waiting to hear for three months. tom foreman joins us from new orleans with the latest details. tom? reporter: anderson, the static kill has been under way about seven hours now and officials are anxiously watching every dial, every readout, every sign of what s happening on the gulf floor this minute. the effort was launched after a series of tests this morning, which a bp official says produced textbook results, meaning they showed no pressure fluctuations, no obstructions leading from the top of the cap into the well, to the rock and sand through the natural oil reservoir far below.
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
this work by his garage today did not want to appear on camera, but let us tape the story on his property. what he told us was i didn t ask whether he was legal or illegal. i just knew he was a good worker. gary tuchman, appreciate it. coming up, what could be the beginning of the end of the worst offshore oil spill in history. or maybe the end of the beginning. the latest on the static kill effort in the gulf and whether it will seal the ruptured well once and for all. is craigslist profiting from prostitution? critics say it is. police say it is. a special 360 investigation amber lyons confronts the founder of craigslist about the ads his company posts and the promises they made to police them. significantly improve my lung function. so, today, i ve noticed a significant difference in my breathing. and i m doing more of what i want to do. so we re clear it doesn t replace a rescue inhaler for sudden symptoms. my doctor said symbicort is for copd,