Actor Kevin Costner Develops Solution To BP Oil Spill

Though some may ask how this post relates to PA, I answer that the following information not only relates to Pennsylvania, but the entire world and it should not be ignored. The BP oil spill affects everyone and everything it touches – directly, or indirectly.

While we are bombarded with news of oil making land and tar balls appearing in the Florida Keys, actor Kevin Costner has demonstrated technology that he and his scientist brother have improved since Mr. Costner became interested in solving oils spill problems back when the Exxon Valdez contaminated the pristine coastline of Alaska. This was no overnight idea from Costner.

Costner has reportedly spent 15 years and $24 million of his own money improving equipment already in existence and that he purchased the rights to, from a government funded organization that gave up on the idea. His recent demonstration in Louisiana for parish leaders and a small amount of media in attendance showed that his equipment can remove 97% of oil from water in an extremely fast process. The efforts culminated in centrifugal oil separators which will soon be put to work.

Costner says there are 5 different size machines available. The smallest cleans 5 gallons of liquid per minute. The largest can clean 200 gallons per minute, which relates to well over 210,000 gallons per day – the amount of oil estimated to be pouring into the Gulf of Mexico and has thus far made landfall in to bayous of Louisiana. The video is below.

It is now reported that a live test will begin next week using 6 of Costners largest machines, though arguments seem to be surfacing on where the machines should be deployed – along the coastline, or at the source of the leaking oil.

The question that should be asked is why Mr. Costner’s device has received so little attention. As of this writing it has been over a month since the BP oil rig exploded, sank, and began polluting the Gulf of Mexico. The first report of Mr. Costner’s device appeared on the CNN network on May 13th. No other networks picked up the story. No major newspapers gave it coverage until just recently when the NY Times and LA Times ran a few short articles.

You know that on day 1 of the BP disaster Costner must have been on the phone calling the oil industry, his elected representatives, and anyone else he thought might listen to tell them, “Hey, I have the equipment that can contain the damage. I have the equipment that can clean the contaminated water.” Did anyone listen? Apparently not.

While BP screwed around with robots trying to close a valve and a “Hat” that never worked, and throwing hundreds of thousands of gallons of toxic dispersants at the leak, the oil continued to pour out. Somehow, Mr. Costner was able to arrange a demonstration for those Louisiana parish leaders and proved he wasn’t blowing smoke like BP, or simply trying to get a photo op.

Still, even with the successful demonstration and the fact that BP has agreed to deploy 6 units, you don’t see this on the news.

It’s as if the government, the oil industry, and the media do not want us to know that an actor has found the solution to possibly the worst man-made disaster in history.

This isn’t the first time entertainers have found solutions to problems the government couldn’t solve.

Together, Hedy Lamarr, along with composer George Antheil, submitted the idea of a secret communication system in June 1941. On August 11, 1942, U.S. Patent 2,292,387 was granted to Antheil and “Hedy Kiesler Markey”, Lamarr’s married name at the time. This early version of frequency hopping used a piano roll to change between 88 frequencies and made radio-guided torpedoes harder for enemies to detect or jam.

Radio personality Walter Winchell developed over 30 patents in his lifetime. He invented an artificial heart with the assistance of Dr. Henry Heimlich (the inventor of the Heimlich Maneuver) and held the first patent for such a device. The University of Utah developed a similar apparatus around the same time, but when they tried to patent it, Winchell’s heart was cited as prior art. The university requested that Winchell donate the heart to the University of Utah, which he did. There is some debate as to how much of Winchell’s design Dr. Robert Jarvik used in creating his artificial heart. Dr. Heimlich states, “I saw the heart, I saw the patent and I saw the letters. The basic principle used in Winchell’s heart and Jarvik’s heart is exactly the same.”

The list goes on, but this isn’t about the past. It is about the “Now” and action needs to be taken now. Costner may just make people forget the pollution of his Waterworld movie, as he becomes recognized for providing the solution for cleaning up the real Waterworld of our environment.

Contact your news media. Contact your representatives. Demand that the media get the story out and demand that Washington does not tie up this solution with hearings, committees, and other bureaucratic red tape that slows down the implementation of Mr Costner’s equipment.