The ongoing leak of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico has reached epic proportions and shows no signs of stopping. All attempts to stop the leak of crude oil into the Gulf have failed thus far leaving the only option for the time being to clean the oil from the waters of the Gulf as quickly as possible.

Actor Kevin Costner came forward not long ago with a machine that his company -- Ocean Therapy Solutions (OTS) - has developed with bold claims that the machine could clean up the massive and ever increasing oil spill floating in the Gulf. The machine is a high-tech centrifuge that is offered in several different sizes with the largest of the machines capable of cleaning crude oil from water at a rate of hundreds of gallons per minute. The centrifuge promises to leave the water 99% clean of crude oil.

BP is reaching for any lifeline to help stop the growing catastrophe and reportedly took one of the machines to test. The initial test failed due to dispersal agents added to the crude oil transforming it into a peanut butter consistency that the machines could not work with. OTS adjusted the machines to work with the thickened consistency and they now reportedly work as described.

BP COO Doug Suttles said, "We were confident the technology would work but we needed to test it at the extremes. We've done that and are excited by the results. We are very pleased with the results and today we have placed a significant order with OTS and will be working with them to rapidly manufacture and deploy 32 of their machines."

Costner says that over the last 15 years he has invested $20 million of his own money into the company to develop the centrifuge machines. Costner says that he was inspired to start the development of the machines after the Exxon Valdez hit a reef in Alaska in 1989 dumping 11 million gallons of crude into Prince William Sound. ABC News reports that depending on the water to oil ratio the centrifuge machines can extract as much as 2,000 barrels of oil per day from the gulf.

OTS CEO John Houghtaling said, "The machines are basically sophisticated centrifuge devices that can handle a huge volume of water and separate at unprecedented rates. They were developed from older centrifuge technology. Normal centrifuge machines are very slow and sensitive to different ratios of oil to water mixtures at intake."

Costner acknowledged that BP has ordered 32 of the oil separating machines. He also claims that that number of machines could mitigate much of the damage done in the waters of the gulf.

He said, "It's not too late … That oil's going to keep coming towards those people. That well has not stopped. So we have to be out at the source, sucking it up … I mean, we have to treat it a little bit like war. We mustered logistically everything we had to get the beaches of Normandy. We have to muster everything we can to keep it from hitting our beaches."