Actor, environmental activist and businessman, Kevin Costner, may have a solution to the BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. One of his companies has discovered a way to separate water from oil.

In 1989, after the Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster, Costner funded a science group, Ocean Therapy Solutions, headed by his brother. The group has developed a technology which means that the massive quantities of oil can be removed from the destroyed seas.

“I'm just very happy that the light of day has come to this, and I'm very sad about why it is, but this is why it was developed, and like anything that we all face as a group, we face it together,” said Costner.

Partners in the company, along with Costner, demonstrated how the technology works. The water enters a machine together with the oil but they are jettisoned separately, water on one side and diesel on the other.

The machine has the potential to clean the water by up to 97 percent. So far the company has five machines with varying abilities from five gallons a minute to 200 gallons a minute.

BP officials are currently formulating a plan to find out where in the Gulf of Mexico will be the best place to test the machines. They are to be deployed within the next week.