In a story coming way out of left field (of dreams) Kevin Costner might have the answer to how to help with the environmental nightmare BP oil spill that is wreaking havoc on the Gulf Coast region. No this doesn’t involve Costner evolving into a part human-part gill having fish-man like in Waterworld but real science.
Costner stars in so many movies where he is responsible for saving the day (The Postman, Waterworld, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, The Bodyguard) that maybe this shouldn’t seem so shocking. So exactly how do you get from Costner to BP oil spill? I’ll do my best here.
For almost 15 years Costner has been developing technology and overseeing the construction of machines that have centrifuge processing technology. That is to say these machines are like giant vacuums that suck oil from water, separate the oil, store it in a tanker and send the water, 97 percent purified, back to where it came from. Costner was motivated to do this after the Exxon Valdez oil tanker spill way back in 1989. Here is a video with Costner further explaining the technology:
If you were like me you were expecting these huge crane like devices but, hey, if it works it works then sadly all the folks down along the coast in Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida are willing to try and do anything they can to help. Costner bought the technology from the government in 1995 and then put $24 million of his own bank into developing it. The company that spearheads these machines is called Ocean Therapy Solutions.
Mr. Houghtaling with Ocean Therapy Solutions said about the technology that has been available for ten years. “These machines have been very robust, but nobody’s been interested in them until now.” As of this post BP has approved six of these machines for testing and if successful hope to use them within the week.
