High Tech Solutions

Deepwater Horizon well on fire


Sealing the well head.

The first chance to choke off the flow for good should come in about a week. Engineers plan to shoot heavy mud into the crippled blowout preventer on top of the well, then permanently entomb the leak in concrete. If that doesn't work, crews also can shoot golf balls and knotted rope into the nooks and crannies of the device to plug it, Wells said.

FSM knows that I've put more than my share of golf balls in to the water. Still, this solution doesn't fill me with a load of confidence.

Meanwhile, underwater oil plumes are quickly approaching an ocean current that, if reached, will pull the oil to the Florida Keys and on to the Atlantic Ocean.