(SHEPHERD, MT) – Senator Jon Tester is urging the U.S. Coast Guard to use technology developed in Montana to help clean up oil caused by BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

 

Floating Islands International attended Tester’s Treasure State Export Seminar in Billings in June.  Tester recently asked the Coast Guard to consider the technology as it works to clean oil from the sensitive wetlands on the Gulf Coast.

 

Tester visited the Floating Islands headquarters on the banks of the Yellowstone River last week to see the technology firsthand.  The company has several floating islands that treat purify river water.

 

“Floating Islands is a Montana success story that ought to be a part of the equation as we look for new, innovative ways to address polluted water in the Gulf of Mexico and across the world,” Tester said.  “Montana is home to a lot of great ideas and brilliant minds.  They’re doing good work, creating good jobs and making the world a better place for our kids and grandkids.”

 

Six companies around the world are licensed to build floating islands with the technology developed in Shepherd.  One of those manufacturers, based in Baton Rouge, recently launched a “floating boom” to prevent oil from reaching wetlands on the Gulf shore.

 

Floating islands in the Gulf could treat as much as 14 million gallons of oil-contaminated water per day, Kania said.

 

Four thousand floating islands are currently in place throughout the world.  Kania said his company is now developing a larger model called the “Leviathan,” an island capable of treating a million gallons of water per minute.