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In Dalian, China right now
Malibu Lagoon
Laurel, Montana. Yellowstone River, Exxon Oil Spill
We have returned to Santa Monica, California
In Pensacola where we are
Lac-Megantic, Quebec Canada
Aruba, February 14th
We have an ongoing oil sands, or tar-sands spill
That has been happening here for 100 years or more
And here is further evidence
You have black oil coming out from underneath
The sewage drainage system in Gowanus Canal
And with the hundreds of millions of dollars
That has been spent on technology that doesn't work
There is still not a solution to the Gowanus Canal contamination
Enough is enough, its time to bring people together
And find a solution that is environmental responsible
And low carbon impact
As advanced as we are as a society
We have yet to advance technology
To clean oil from water
What you see here today is an example
Of a simple and effective technology
It is not magic
It is explained in white papers
It is a technology that attracts oil like a magnet
And repels water
What that means is we can
Simply and effectively filter the oil
Out of the water in Gowanus Canal
And prevent the oil-contaminated waters
From reaching the East River
In New York City
In conjunction with the OPFLEX booms
And the OPFLEX eel-grass
The OPFLEX belt system is a solution
To help clean the toxic oil contamination
From the Gowanus Canal in a cost-effective,
Environmentally responsible way
[music]
Mark Ruffalo: And how deep are these canals?
Scott Smith: This canal is tidal, it varies between 20ft and 5ft
Mark: And how much oil is sitting on the bottom?
Is it just tar oil?
Scott: A lot of it is tar oil
Which is the same thing they are fracking for.
There is tar sands oil right here is New York City
See, its all about surface area
You've got that open-cell structure
If you had the conventional, white round booms there
You'd have about 20 square feet of surface area
We have 10,000 square feet of surface area
With what we put out there
Just like the human lungs
Scott: Yes
Mark: You're not gonna go down there are you?
Scott: Yeah!
Mark: Aren't you afraid?
He's not afraid of anything
Scott: This is, with all the stress I have, I do this for relaxation
The cost to deploy this is 7 cents per square foot of surface area
Versus $2.00 on products that don't work that go to the landfills
Its a no-brainer
Mark: Its a no-brainer
Scott: And the water column is whats
Beneath the surface and above the bottom
Instantaneous water samples from the surface tell you nothing.
Because if you're a kid or a fish living here
You're not in the water for a split-second
You want to know what accumulates over time.
So that's why we're mimicking
The human lung and other carbon life-forms
By seeing how much gets absorbed into the structure
So what you simply do is you take this off
And you can see the contamination penetrating the open-cell structure
you simply just put this in a jar, you send it off to a lab
And you get a fingerprint for what exactly the contamination is
Mark: Now what is this made of?
Scott: Ethylene Methyl Acrylate
It is actually a byproduct from natural gas and oil refining
We are taking what is a waste product
And making it into something
That can be used to help the environment
Mark: What would they normally do with it?
Scott: This get used in IV-bags
Its used largely in the medical device field in surgery applications
Its basically creating an open-celled material
that can mimic the human lung.
Mark: And it breaks down aerobically?
Scott: Yes. There's an anaerobic additive
and we have all the graphs and data on that
With BP in the Gulf of Mexico we reused it about 25-30 times
When they were done the EPA tested it and it was not hazardous material
So it could go to a regular landfill where it biodegrades
Instead of other materials that stay around 300 - 400 years
This will biodegrade in 5 - 8 years
Mark: What are these Scott?
Scott: Those are our versions of booms with surface area
So what you want to do is create a barrier
To block the oil as it comes
And then you put our eel-grass, using bio-mimicry
To remove the contamination
We want to block and contain this contamination
From going into the East River
Mark: Right
Scott: Which is where this comes out
So you block it and contain it,
And then you absorb it and remove it
Mark: And what it does is it captures the oil
On this side where the eel-grass
Can start to do its job
Scott: Yes.
The OPFLEX behaving like the human lung
Breathing the contamination and repelling the clear water
Mark: So it actually grabs a hold of the contaminants,
Of the oil and lets the water just simply slip away
Scott: And you see the clear water coming out
One drop at a time.
Mark: Wow
Scott: Every time there's a storm here or a hurricane
It flushes in the Gowanus Canal
Mark: And some of that stuff could have been there
For 70 years, 100 years?
Scott: That's right.
Mark: From other industries?
Scott: That's correct.
Mark: And its mostly oil, petroleum?
Scott: Yes. And its almost all petroleum.
The heavy stuff here is heavy coal-tar and asphaltenes
Everyone talks about tar-sands and whats going on like its someplace else
But its right here in Brooklyn too
Mark: Right. And thats whats sitting on the bottom?
Scott: Thats exactly whats sitting on the bottom
I've been at this enough to see the waterways
Always respect the current and the water flow
That's illustrating right there its
Catching a lot of contamination going right
Down the center of Gowanus.
And you have to stop that to keep it from spreading
Mark: Now, do they know you have this in here?
Scott: Yes.
Mark: The EPA does?
Scott: Yes.
Mark: And do they care?
Scott: Well, some of the contractors last year
Kind of gave us a hard time
I've been told they don't want
A recyclable, reusable product
Mark: Why?
Scott: Because we're going to take away
80% of their revenue
They get their revenue from filling the landfills
Its a disruptive technology
And when you mean what you say and
Its truly green
I did not realize, I was all excited about
This recycling and reusability
And I'm still in shock
About the resistance being met
By some of these entrenched contractors
We want to create thousands of jobs
That are sustainable
That are green
That help clean the environment
Mark: And that are actually effective
Scott: Thats right.
What if we had a green technology
That creates jobs and actually saves the government money?
What if this could be cleaned up for $80 million
Instead of $540 million?
What if $300 million could go to pay down the deficit?
Or $300 million could go to help healthcare ,
And help people that need the help?
Mark: That right there is a boom
Its actually worthless.
Its meant to give people the feeling
that they're catching oil on the other side of that boom
Its just a plastic sheath, but as soon as it rains
Everything thats sitting behind it
Inundates it, goes over it, and comes down
Its absolutely ineffective
And its used only to give people a false sense of security
Mark: If you don't have the science you don't have anything
You have no credibility, right?
Scott: Yeah
Mark: So, we have the science to back this up
To back up our passions
If you don't have science to back up your passions
You're an ideologue
Scott: That's right
Mark: Ideologues live in the non-reallity
And you want to talk about a green economy
Green jobs, climate change, and responsible power?
We've got all the answers are tied together
This is all part of a gigantic solution
Mark: Which is the new industrial revolution
Scott: Yes
Mark: The second industrial revolution.
We need a second industrial revolution
To clean up the mess that the first industrial revolution made