When the real estate development business has tanked, why not try to save the environment instead?
Former Snowmass Base Village developer Pat Smith has teamed up with another part-time Aspen resident — Kevin Costner — to help clean up the Gulf oil spill, using technology the actor has sunk his personal fortune into developing.
Ocean Therapy Solutions, Costner’s company where Smith is chief operating officer, is currently producing and deploying 32 special centrifuge machines, which separate oil from water, in the Gulf. Each machine can clean up to 210,000 gallons of oily water per day, according to Ocean Therapy Solutions’ website.
Costner, a part-time local resident whose home and “field of dreams” is the last private property east of Aspen on the way to Independence Pass, was reportedly touched by the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989. A few years later, he procured some technology from the U.S. Department of Energy and formed a company to develop a compact, portable device that would separate oil from water using a centrifugal system. Costner spent more than $20 million of his own money on the venture over the years, but there was little interest in it until recently.
Then, in late April, the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion placed a sense of urgency on Costner’s work. According to the OTS website, that was when New Orleans businessman John Houghtaling met Costner and his “longtime friend and business partner” Smith, and the three began working together at Ocean Therapy Solutions.
It is unclear how Smith, who founded and ran Related WestPac to buy and develop Base Village, first got involved with Costner. Smith, who stepped down from Related WestPac in early 2009, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
His bio on the OTS website reads: “Mr. Smith has always remained passionate about environmental issues discussed in any forum, and has personally been able to successfully implement this green approach to the construction, management and planning of his most recent development of Snowmass Village, Snowmass, Colorado.”
Smith and various partners bought numerous properties in Snowmass with the intention of creating a villagewide, master-planned development anchored by Base Village. He also was a partner in the development of the Residences at Little Nell in Aspen and owns a slopeside home on Aspen Mountain.
With the help of a consultant, OTS spent much of May quickly producing prototypes of their centrifugal separators to be deployed to the Gulf, and by early June received clearance from British Petroleum to do the testing in open waters.
The tests were successful, and in June Costner testified before two congressional subcommittees about the process, urging the government to implement stronger safety standards for the oil industry.
“It seems logical that as long as the oil industry profits from the sea, they have the legal obligation to protect it,” Costner told Congress. “One of these machines should be on every ship transporting oil, they should be on every derrick, they should be in every harbor.”
According to OTS, the new machines can extract 2,000 barrels of oil a day from the Gulf, processing 200 gallons of oil-tainted water per minute and leaving the water more than 99 percent clean of crude. The oil is stored in tanks and can be recycled.
Smith, in a CNN interview, said the machines “could have cleaned up Valdez in a week.”
On June 10, BP signed a letter of intent with OTS granting the company the right to deploy 32 of the centrifuge machines to the Gulf.
Three of the machines are currently in operation in the Gulf, according to OTS, and 10 more should be coming online within the next few weeks. The company is ramping up production and plans to produce 10 machines per month, Smith said on the OTS website.
“Good for Pat,” said Related WestPac spokesman Steve Alldredge upon learning of his ex-boss’ new venture. “We need that oil removed.”
lutz@aspendailynews.com