Ecosphere Technologies’ agreement with Mid-Gulf Recovery Services has developed into a contract announced July 8th.
The contract stipulates two Ozonix mobile water treatment units will be deployed on barges carrying housing quarters, to purify grey and black water generated by the personnel deployed to clean portions of the gulf. One unit has been deployed, and the second is slated to deploy by July 22.
This is unexpected news indeed, and while I’m glad the personnel on the two barges won’t contribute to the environmental disaster via untreated grey or black water, I had hoped advanced technology would be deployed to directly address the oil spill itself.
However, Ecosphere may have just stumbled on a new opportunity: if Ozonix can be used to purify grey and blackwater for reuse, Ozonix could potentially be deployed in other humanitarian and military missions, remote oil and mining camps, and other personnel-heavy, water-starved situations. The UN could deploy Ozonix in Haiti to save money trucking water to IDP camps.
We’ll keep watching Ecosphere to see how the contract with Mid-Gulf progresses.
Galen produces the BlueTech Blog. He's worked on sustainability projects as a student at Whitworth University, as a teacher at the UN RCE USD in Tongyeong, South Korea, and writes occasionally for a leading sustainability blog. 
