Skimmers in Action (Courtesy of The Epoch Times)

The oil spewed from a mile beneath the gulf for around eighty days before being cappedn ad hopefully, eventually plugged. In the meantime, government scientists who studied the phenomenon via the underwater video cameras estimate as many as 50,000 barrels of oil spewed from the broken well every day– that’s four million barrels of crude oil altogether– an environmental disaster to be sure.

So the question becomes, how to deal with the clean-up. How do you take 4 million barrels of oil out of the Gulf of Mexico quickly and cleanly? Well, you ask the experts. The Gulf oil Spill is big, but surely, there are people who deal with spills approaching this size, or, more importantly, who’ve dealt with big spills recently.

Enter the Dutch. Rotterdam’s a port of call for oil, and the Dutch have made an industry of cleaning it up. The tech is called The Sweeping Arm Oil Skimmer. they have machines that can sift oil from the ocean’s surface and hold onto it while spitting filtered water back into the Gulf. PRI’s Marketplace reported that the Dutch offered Uncle Sam their technology and expertise in dealing with the spill at the outset in May, however–

American officials refused. Rather, they decided to tackle the millions of barrels of oil in the cheapest, most environmentally destructive way possible: burn it.

And that plan didn’t even begin until mid June– the explosion that began the spill happened on 22 April (or Earth Day). When that didn’t work, the people running the cleaning effort moved to a slightly less deadly technology: toxic oil dispersants…nevermind the vibrant fishing industry that works these waters. The EPA censured the use of the dispersants, but still refused to allow the use of the Dutch skimmers because the ‘filtered’ water that was being put back into the Gulf wasn’t covered by their rules.

To give you an idea of how ridiculous this decision was, understand that according to the Examiner, on 8 June, more than six weeks after the spill commenced, BP reported that they had collected ~64k barrels of oil…less than a days work for one of the Dutch skimmers.

But that wasn’t the only tech fail to occur in during the spill. Kevin Costner (that’s right, Mr. Field of Deams, and perhaps, more appropriately, Waterworld) attempted to get machinery that he heavily invested in, machinery that does indeed clean oil off the surface of the water. According to Costner, oil companies would not invest in the machines because they “did not think another spill could occur,” while regulators would not allow his unapproved machines on the scene. Logical as that may sound, the regulators would not allow the machinery to be approved without testing it first…but since it was unapproved testing could not happen… (you see the problem here).

It wasn’t until mid July that the US government started to re-consider the use of the Dutch skimmers. A move back in the right direction to be sure, but a move that came way too late.

There’s another tech tragedy here. The Deep Horizon oil rig, whose explosion commenced the spill that ill-fated spring night, was outfitted with alarms to wake and warn the oil drillers of anything out of the ordinary. That alarm was partially turned off, in an effort to ensure the  oil-rig personnel slept well.

Overall, the technological decision making taking place during this crisis has been horrendous. Many lives– human, wetlands and marine could have been saved if the leadership involved in this situation had been more technologically open, and more technologically aware. Allowing regulations to get in the way of legitimate the clean-up efforts of an environmentally and economically sensitive area is as close to criminal negligence as one can get; and what’s worse? It violates the spirit of those regulations at the expense of people’s livelihoods, and worse, nature’s majesty.