WASHINGTON (AP) - Actor Kevin Costner said Thursday that having
BP use his company's device to help with the Gulf oil spill cleanup
is "not a Hollywood ending for me."
He told a Senate committee on small business that he's been
working for more than a decade in hopes of having the cleanup
machines on hand for immediate use in spills.
"Clearly, there is a market out there," said Costner, who has
invested more than $24 million to develop the portable devices.
BP has contracted with Costner and Ocean Therapy Solutions to
use 32 centrifuge machines that are designed to separate oil from
water.
Costner said all major oil companies should keep the device
nearby, like a fire extinguisher, ready whenever accidents occur.
The centrifuges can fit on fishing boats or docks and clean 200
gallons of water per minute - 210,000 gallons per day, Costner
said.
The actor appeared at the hearing of the Senate Committee on
Small Business and Entrepreneurship to talk about the challenges
small businesses face in getting the government and BP to evaluate
their ideas to clean up the Gulf oil spill.
Navigating the system is like "playing a video game that no one
can master," Costner said. And many government agencies and
foreign and U.S. oil companies were unresponsive even after seeing
the oil-water separator years ago.
Costner said the device had been sitting at a Nevada facility
for 10 years until BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles recently
called him.
"He was excited," Costner said. "He told me that the machine
worked. He told me that it was working against the dispersants,
that it was handling the variations of oil mixtures and thickness
present in the Gulf."
Costner said other small businesses like his have ideas that
could be used in the oil spill relief effort.
"If we can find oil thousands of feet in the ground at depths
that boggle the mind," Costner said, "then surly we have the
technology to clean up our own mess."

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