Gulf oil spill a bittersweet opportunity for Ohio cleanup experts

More than 1,000 miles from the Deepwater Horizon mess, the Buckeye State is making a difference. From stopping the spread and skimming to using glass mesh and microbes, many of the teams working on the relief and cleanup mission don't even need to leave the state.

Two small Stark County companies are making a big splash in the oil spill cleanup effort. Navarre-based Miller Weldmaster manufactures the machines that make booms � floating (often bright yellow) barriers that prevent the spread of oil. And its spinoff company, Massillon-based Stanwood Boomworks, actually makes the booms.

And business is, er, booming.

Jeff Sponseller, executive vice president of sales and marketing for both companies, says the workforce at Miller Weldmaster has increased 10 percent since May. He says Stanwood Boomworks � which was only founded in May � plans to double its workforce of nearly 100 employees. The company is planning to supply an additional 1 million feet of oil booms to the Gulf region to assist with cleanup efforts. Add that to the nearly 85 miles of Stanwood booms along the coast already in place.

"You need skilled laborers to make the product," says Sponseller, who adds that there is a quality pool of workers from the economically hard-hit Stark County workforce. "We've got some really high-quality employees."

Miller Weldmaster, founded in 1972, makes machines that weld plastic materials together � think truck tarps, tents and rafts. It only stood to reason that oil booms could be made as well. The theory was proved after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989.

Of the roughly 20 companies producing booms in the nation, the Stark County combination is now believed to be among the largest.

"There's a sense of pride that every inch of booms we make is used to protect our coast," Sponseller says. "It's nice to know that the work you're doing is a worthwhile cause and that you're helping people. If we can provide a solution to help with this, then we have an ethical obligation to do this."

Chagrin Falls-based Abanaki is another company in Ohio helping in the effort. The company is going right after the spill, chasing it down and cleaning it up -- more than 50,000 gallons of oil already.

Abanaki CEO Tom Hobson says the company's product, the Fuzzy 2, is applied at the tip of a disk skimmer and moves quickly through the oil-slicked Gulf water � at about 385 gallons of oil per minute.

Hobson says before the April leak, it was believed the product worked best cleaning up "light oil."

"The oil has changed," he adds. "The light oils are evaporating off. The oil that's left is a tar-material. We knew our material was really good with the light stuff, but it also does pretty good with the heavy stuff."

The company, founded in 1985, typically uses its sopping application in manufacturing facilities around the globe.

"Oil cleanup is kind of a new application," Hobson says. With thousands of barrels of new oil leaking every day, there is plenty of work to go around. He declined to say how many positions have been added, but did say those additions represent a 15 percent increase during the last three months.

While the Gulf spill has meant more business for the firm, Hobson says "I would rather not be doing this kind of business. This is really gut-wrenching. It's nice to be able to helping. That's a good feeling."

While Abanaki takes the traditional route of oil skimming, other companies are cleaning up the oil in different ways.

Cincinnati-based CL Solutions has its own take on cleaning up the mess. The company deploys microbes to eat the oil. (Talk about a gas-guzzler.)

Mike Saul, the VP of CL Solutions met with Florida Gov. Charlie Crist in June to discuss using the bioremediation process along the state's sandy shores, where the oil is hidden underneath the surface. CL Solutions is the distributor of Munox, a biological product for environmental cleanups manufactured by Sarasota-based Osprey Biotechnics. CL Solutions has not yet received the green light to begin work, but Saul hopes to move forward with a contract by the end of July.

There is a huge amount of satisfaction in helping to solve this situation," Saul says. "One of our fears is to appear to be taking advantage of this. We've just got a great product and we know we can help out. We just want to be able to do this, and add a benefit to society. It's always been our business to help cleanup contaminated sites � it's always interested me to remove contaminates and potential harm to the environment. The BP spill is just on a larger scale. You feel an even greater sense of urgency."

JumpStart Ventures portfolio company ABS Materials is aiding cleanup efforts in the Gulf by going after the "slop" � water highly contaminated by dissolved oil � and purifying it. Osorb, the company's core technology, separates dirty, toxic water using hi-tech, embedded glass mesh.

But the company doesn't even need to send anyone to the Gulf. The contaminated water, collected by skimmers, is trucked to Ohio in 6,000-gallon tanks. And then it's purified in Wooster � at about 100 gallons per minute.

Here's how it works: Water comes into ABS tanks. Osorb's glass scavenges the volatile organic compound and the oil attaches to the glass. Clean water goes out. Oil is boiled out of the glass. And the process begins again using reused glass. The liquid goes in at 2,000 parts of oil per million and goes out 60 parts per million.

"And there's no deck space," says CEO Steve Spoonamore. "All hands on deck, but there's no boat."

"We're really, really proud of our work," he says. "We're also a little frustrated that we have this good of a system and we are trying to be helpful. At this point, a third of the water in the Gulf is toxic. How many centuries could it take to process this all?"

Spoonamore says his firm has created 18 positions in the last few months, and is looking to hire more. But he quickly adds that he is not happy that the oil spill is a catalyst for increased productivity.

"All the technology in the world may not be able to clean this up," he adds. "We do a great job separating oil from water, but this is much bigger than any of us can handle."