One of the greatest environmental disasters of the last years keeps killing thousands of animals and endangers beaches of the Mexican Gulf. BP has been trying number of methods how to tackle the oil spill, including burning the oil and application of highly poisonous dispersant. The petroleum company received unexpected help few days ago.

Oil Slick in the Gulf of Mexico May 17th by NASA Goddard Photo and Video

It may sound silly, but Waterworld movie star Kevin Costner may be the hero of the day. This actor, best known for the Oscar flick Dances with Wolves, was deeply moved by the extent of Exxon Valdez disaster, which destroyed Alaskan coastline two decades ago. Not only he included references of the accident in his movies (villains' mother ship in Waterworld has name Exxon Valdez) as we would expect from an actor and director, but he did a lot more.

He decided to purchase Ocean Therapy Oil Separator Project, water-cleaning system co-developed by his Brother Dan, in 1993. In his own words, he spent over $40 million on the project, but his repeated effort to offer it to major oil producing companies was fruitless. Until now. He approached BP and desperate company immediately started testing first six of these mechanisms. If tests are proven successful, Ocean Therapy mechanisms can be deployed in the critical areas and start cleaning water within a short time.

Ocean Therapy Oil Separator works on a simple principle. Powerful pumps suck in the liquid from ocean's surface. Huge centrifuges remove the oil, leaving clean water in separate tank. The efficiency is said to be over 99% and the biggest of the machines can process 200 gallons of liquid per minute – more than official intensity of the leakage from the damaged Deep Water Horizon pipes. After a serie of unsuccessful movies, Kevin Costner can rebuild his reputation in a completely different field - and we all may benefit from it.