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Not an all clear. government scientists figure about 52 million gallons of oil are still in the water, on or just below the surface as a light sheen and weathered tar balls. the national oceanic and atmospheric administration says the stats could be off by 10%. outside scientists are also uncomfortable with such precise percentages. along the coast, still struggling residents worry the federal government will pick up and go home. up next, we'll ask admiral thad allen to add this all up and tell us what it means for the people of the gulf.

That the vast majority of the oil has either evaporated or been burned, skimmed and recovered from the wellhead or dispersed, and much of the dispersed oil is in the process of relatively rapid degradation. >> which is pretty amazing but not at all clear. government scientists figure about 52 million gallons of oil are still in the water, on or just below the surface as a light sheen and weathered tar balls. the national oceanic and atmospheric administration says the stats could be off by 10%. outside scientists are also uncomfortable with such precise percentages. along the coast, still stru...

Still have out here, but the other main issue, guys, i can tell you about the tar balls. any oil that is left appears to be showing up in the form of tar balls. we're on grand isle and we're heading out with the coast guard to check on recovery operations here and we'll be reporting on that throughout the day. >> all right, rick leventhal live for us in grand isle, louisiana, thanks, rick. >> i wonder where the fish went? >> seagulls, perhaps? >> scattered all over the ocean. in the meantime, we do have more news for you. here are the rest of your headlines. while you're sleeping, deadly viole...

And we want to show you an impressive beach cleanup in grand isle. large piles of sand there on the beach. that has been scooped up by beach cleaners and this then is carried in a pay loader in the bucket of a pay loader off to that orange hopper there and the and is then put on the conveyor belt and screened. it goes through a two stage rinsing process. the oil is skimmed off and then the clean sand is dumbed into the yellow trucks and carted off to be put in another pile of clean sand. they say that the sand washers have cleaned 121-tons of sand yesterday alone. recovered about five barrels ...

Michael blum, professor at tulane university in new orleans, but he said all that's certain is the form of the oil has shifted dispersed. oil is still oil. it's just in a different form. so, how much is still there and how damaging is it potentially? >> i think it's important to understand this was the largest response to an environmental disaster. we had over 6,000 vessels, more than 40,000 people, and the goal was to keep the oil off the beaches and out of the marshes and the estuaries. some of it did get on the beaches. some of it got into theest wares. that has to be cleaned up. some of it...