Oh hey! After weeks of halfbaked attempts and botched efforts, yesterday’s top kill procedure has stopped the flow of oil into the Gulf, according to the Coast Guard. Soon engineers will start cementing and then sealing the well.
https://gizmodo.com/how-bp-will-stop-the-oil-eruption-the-top-kill-method-5548212
You can expect that excellent news to lose just a bit of its luster later in the day, when an interagency team will release a revised estimate of how much oil was actually pumping into the ocean this whole time; it could well be a lot more than the 5000 barrel a day figure that was initially reported. Regardless, if “top kill” was as successful as these early reports suggest, it marks a huge milestone in what will undoubtedly be a long road to ecological and economic recovery in the area. [LA Times]
