Page 3 - Coffer Dam News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Nbc joins us from port sulphur. >> reporter: the weather is cooperating after a couple rough days other the weekend. this calm, this low in the weather is allowing officials out there responsible for the cleanup and containment of the oil spill to go out and continue booming. also more importantly to continue the skimming. they're trying to kor ral and contain this oil spill, this oil slick, into areas where they're hopefully going to try to let off and ignite some of the controlled burns that we saw earlier last week. meanwhile bp is moving ahead with some of the solutions they've been talkin...

Reporters while there are no guarantees, the dome could have the spill under control by early next week. >> reporter: contessa, a lot of the elements here around this oil spill, oil leak is very imprecise. that's why a lot of the officials with bp especially have been hesitant to give out estimates. for now bp is expecting to move what they're calling a 65-ton coffer dam into place over the major leak in about six days. they're hoping to have that in place within six day. it's basically a 65-ton concrete and steel surface dome that will go over this major leak and then it will have a pipe runn...

Loss of 5,000 barrels a day? how do you cap it off? >> we're trying to a couple of things, chris. first of all, when the incident occurred and the mobile drilling unit sunk, there should have been an act wags of a blow-out preventer. it's a valve this shuts, that obviously did not close or it only closed partially. the challenge is to try to stop the leak around that. they'll have to drill a relief well to stop the pressure. and in the meantime we're trying to deal with the leakage around the riser pipe. we're trying with remotely-operated vehicles to try to fix the blow-out preventer. bp is a...

Meeting with five governors last night, the navy is involved. obviously, b.p. can't handle it. i understand they're designing and building a large boxlike structure that could be lowered right over where the leak is rising. and with a 5,000 foot long pipe down there, connected to the rig that would allow that oil to flow somewhere else besides through the waters, is that correct? >> yes. they call that a dome or a coffer dam that would encapsulate the area where there are three leaks and then as you described, that would pull it up to the surface through a pipe that could then be piped into a ...

Minerals management service on the floor of the ocean and coast guard has equities at the top and we're all committed as far as recovering the oil. >> how do you get down a mile deep into the gulf of mexico and stop that loss of 5,000 barrels a day? how do you cap it off? >> we're trying to a couple of things, chris. first of all, when the incident occurred and the mobile drilling unit sunk, there should have been an actuation of a blowout preventer. it's a valve that automatically shuts. that obviously did not close or it only closed partially. the challenge is to try to stop the leak around ...