The operation is one of two bids to definitively "kill" the damaged well, which has spewed noxious crude into the sea since April, devastating fragile habitats and bringing financial ruin to many residents along the US Gulf Coast.No point in booms, the oil has been dispersed and is now mixed into the seawater. The entire Gulf is now a toxic soup of water and oil and Corexit, and that stuff is going to be in the water for a very, very long time. I really do hope that the static kill works, because if it doesn't, it could backfire and make things much, much worse.
BP officials in recent days said they hoped the "static kill" operation would take place Tuesday, but on Sunday the US point man for the spill response, Coast Guard admiral Thad Allen, said it "could start as early as Monday night, depending on final testing of the mud injection systems."
If successful, the "static kill" will allow crews to plug the well from above with cement, but the procedure is untested and similar to a previous "kill" attempt that failed at the end of May.
Still, 104 days into the spill, Americans are desperate for a sign that the leak will soon be permanently capped, allowing the full focus of BP and government officials in the region to shift to clean-up operations and repairing the economic damage caused by the worst oil disaster in US history.
Somewhere between three million to 5.3 million barrels leaked into the Gulf between April 20 and July 15, when a cap placed over the wellhead was sealed, fully containing the flow of oil for the first time.
While locals are eager to see the well plugged for good, there are fears that a successful kill operation will prompt a mass exodus of officials brought into the region to respond to the crisis.
Crews have already begun collecting some of the millions of feet of protective boom after skimming vessels said they were having difficulty finding spilled crude on the sea surface anymore.
We'll see.
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