by RICK THOMASON
Local blogger Rick Thomason spent 29 years in the news business in four states. He publishes two blogs - Journalism, Because It Matters which is devoted primarily to Journalism and the businesses that support it; and Third Cup of Coffee, a collection of postings on a wide variety of topics. Rick can be contacted at rickthom@yahoo.com.
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They are scientists and engineers with one focus: They want to put to use the technologies they have developed or have permission to distribute to help clean up the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
They are the Gulf Recovery Team, LLC.
Friday night representatives from three of the companies in the consortium presented their products and services to a small crowd of about 40 people at the Walton County Coastal Branch Library in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida.
The meeting was organized by local resident and businessman John Finch, owner of Sunshine Shuttle and its affiliated businesses. Finch flew to Miami, FL, on his own dime, to get the consortium to come to south Walton for the presentation. For that selfless, but important, gesture John Finch deserves the thanks of everyone.
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Prior to the public meeting the group also made a pitch to Walton County Sheriff Mike Adkinson who got high marks from the businessmen for his proactive approach and tough questions.
Tom Roberts, president and CEO of Atlas-Transoil, Inc., said the goal of the consortium is to “try to develop a plan for the specific issues this area might encounter with the oil spill.” Walton County’s issues would be different than those in, say, Baldwin County, AL.
Roberts added that each company represented at the meeting and in the consortium has “superior technology” to clean up the environment.
Dr. Barry Liss, who leads the alliance, said GRT would focus on:
- Oil spill clean up expediters
- Oil recover from the ocean
- Shoreline protection
- Contamination control
- Recovery and disposal
Each of the eight companies in the group brings a different expertise and technology to the table. And not all of what they bring might be applicable to a specific area.
"We will need a local survey of needs to identify needs and costs,” said Liss.
Make no mistake. These are businessmen who hold fiduciary responsibilities to their companies. So they were in Walton County touting their goods and services with the hopes that those in attendance would further their story to local decision makers.
But one also got the feeling that these men also were highly concerned with the future of the Gulf of Mexico and wanted to assist in its recovery.
John DiBella of Enviro Voraxial Technology, or EVTN, spoke about his company’s machinery which, for what it purports to do, is amazingly simple. The machines provide a continuous flow of liquid through a tube fitted with a patented low-shear rotary assembly. That assembly creates a vortex inside the tube. The rest of the process is described on the company’s website: By this action, heavier materials (such as solids) are forced to the outside of the vortex while lighter materials (such as oil) are drawn to form the central core of the vortex, thereby creating separated flow streams. A specially designed manifold is utilized at the exit of the separation chamber to collect the separated streams.
