the relief wells, one step they had to take before they get to the static kill procedure. when they clean out the relief wells they ll remove sand and silt that dropped into the well when the remnants of tropical storm bonnie moved overhead. then they re going to lay what they refer to as casing, basically a hollow metal pipe. that s when they proceed with the static kill procedure, inject a combination of cement and mud into the containment cap and that s the first step. the second big step is the bottom kill, the bottom kill will occur sometime in the middle of this month or possibly toward the end of this month, the final deal on the well. one thing it could sidetrack the enti entireed venture is if you have tropical system in the gulf of mexico. that s the time of year when it can happen. right now is there a pretty good window of opportunity as far as the weather goes? reporter: really does look good, t.j. in fact we re not expecting any
operation from when they originally planned it, it was going to be on sunday and now it looks like monday or tuesday, possibly tuesday before they are able to get to that. the static kill procedure is where they go to the containment cap and they inject a combination of mud and cement which they call the static kill, because the oil is static, not able to get out because of the containment cap itself. that s step one. the second step, as you well know, is what they call the bottom kill. they use their relief well and go horizontally into the source of the oil and fire another injection of both cement and mud. that should really kill off the well all together. at least that s the plan. the thing is, we are looking at monday or tuesday for the static kill. the state of louisiana did get good news in the last 24 hours. the commercial fishermen have been given the okay to go back to the water, to the job that they know and love. that is a very important
that caused all this international uproar. now we have a new regulations-americregulations russian-american adoption agency that will oversee the adoptions from here on out. meanwhile, the gulf. yes, day 103, static kill, the latest effort we re told is going to be the next solution, the next step here. it s now been delayed. bp is tweaking it. the company is going ahead with prep work leading up to the static kill procedure. let s get straight to cnn s reynolds wolf in new orleans. he s been there for us for i don t know how long at this point, you dear man, you wonderful man. so tell us, reynolds it s a trip. don t have too much vacation time. so why the delay? what is the delay going and what s the effect here? reporter: well, you know, you mentioned there an intricate time line but they have run into a little bit of a snag. the reason why is one of the relief wells.
well. bp pushing back plans to start the static kill procedure. reynolds wolf in new orleans to explain why. why is the timeline going back just a bit? reporter: the reason we have a little bit of a wrinkle in the time frame, things were ironed out picture perfect. the well, itself, is fine. there happens to be a little bit of silt or sand that made its way into the relief well. the reason they believe that happened is because back when we had the remnants of tropical storm bonnie, it stirred up things at the surface and way down at the bottom of the gulf of mexico, it actually stirred up some of that sediment. it got into the relief well. before they get to the point where they can employ the static kill operation, the relief well has to be clonedeaned out. there are two. it is the one closest to the main source of the oil. it should take anywhere from 12 to 24 to 36 hours. regardless, it is going to cause
this morning, in biloxi, mississippi, incoming ceo bob dudley announced james lee witt, former head of fema under clinton has been hired to help with bp s gulf restoration work. addressing the ongoing cleanup effort, dudley said there would be less boom, fewer hazmat suits, but the same commitment. where there s no oil on the beaches, you probably don t need people walking up and down with hazmat suits. so you ll see that kind of a pullback. but commitment, absolutely no pullback. back underwater, the latest effort to further plug the well is being pushed back. the static kill procedure was scheduled to start sunday. it has been moved to tuesday and now there are concerns over what s actually coming out of the well. this morning, dudley proclaimed bp hasn t seen oil flowing in two weeks. we haven t seen oil flow into the gulf since the 15th of july.