Breaking It Up News Today

Suggestion of nuking the leaks. first, taking out the trash, taking some carefully selected items like tires and golf balls, putting it into a pipe and seal it with mud and concrete. the trash option. or bp could do the opposite, drill another hole in the damaged pipeline and route the oil to a tanker on the surface. then the contracting company showing how crews could use bails of hay to absorb the oil but not the water. look at that. despite the creativity, lawmakers in d.c. dont seem too impr...

100,000 plus documents, most from bp, revealing in some of them the preventer -- the one responsible for stopping the oil flow had a hydraulic leak in a critical area and failed a pressure test prior to the explosion. >> shepard: what about the top hat? when will we see them test that? >> well, its on the sea floor now. adjacent to where theyll place it tomorrow, over where the oil is leaking in the main of the two remaining leaks. what theyre doing today, theyre attaching the hoses to it and wi...

That dome failed. some oil reached shorelines. bp is trying another fix, a small device called a top hat but lawmakers are asking if this could have been prevented if the companies involved with the rig would have paid more attention to safety measures. phil keating is live in empire, louisiana. weve been hearing a lot of blame tossed around in the oil disaster hearings in washington. thats still going on today, isnt it? >> reporter: there is that still going on today but a little bit more forth...

That comes from kevin yeager, a professor at the university of southern mississippi who says some cleanup efforts could hurt the environment and money would be better spent helping local economies recover. pierce chapman is head of the department of oceanography at texas a&m. >> tell me what peat moss might do and how would you implement these ideas? >> well, some of the ideas put forward, like peat moss or hair or woodchips, rely on the fact theyre organic materials and would absorb the oil. th...

Burn it so that the ocean itself doesnt cool down the flames too quickly. this will allow the oil to burn. but you obviously -- theres a problem in that you get air pollution instead but surprisingly this technique has been used successfully in the arctic if oil collects on ice flows and pools into thick layers and it burns well and you can get rid of a large percentage. but in the open ocean its hard. >> we have a satellite delay. a lot of people are unhappy about the use of dispersements sayin...

To the environment than trying to clear it up. particularly in areas like marshes where if you try to put heavy equipment into the marsh areas, youre going to churn the surface up and youre going to get oil in the mud and it will stay there possibly for years. so where as if you leave it on the surface, the sunlight can break down oil, bacteria can break down oil and nature will eventually clear it up. the problem is everybody wants it done now and this is going to take months if not years. >> s...

And you look at a slick thats potentially the size of delaware, the scale of the problem is such that these methods in particular are really going to be pointless. theyll work in certain areas on the shore but not out in the open ocean. when you deploy them, you still have to collect them after they absorb what oil they absorb and dis suppose of them. so thats still a mess. >> shepard: were going to talk about the theory is about to head to a different coast. first, this idea of burning it off t...

Report that a civilian has been killed. thats not why i ran for president. its not why im commander in chief. >> reporter: this is part of what is being described as an overcorrection of u.s. relation with afghan. no more talking about issues that are supreme will he important to karzai not even here but bahm home. thats why the president went down that road today. >> shepard: major garrett, thank you, sir. now to the oil disaster in the gulf of mexico. today were learning an important safety ...

Does that hold any water for you? >> absolutely. oil -- crude oil generally, a lot it will evaporate in the first two or three days. there are components in crude oil we put in our cars that have eight components and anything that has carbon chain links will evaporate fairly quickly. this of course then leaves the heavier fractions, which dont evaporate but theyre less toxic and form tar balls and sink as they interact with debris as they link up with set meant and while it causes smothering of ...