Local company helping clean up oil in gulf

More than 2,000 boats are in the Gulf of Mexico every day trying to suck up the oil that's floating there.

Some of those boats may have vacuums made here in Central Florida.

A newly built industrial strength vacuum is one of dozens Vac-Tron, a Lake County company, is creating to help cleanup the gooey, black sludge that is now polluting so much of the Gulf.

Vac-Tron's vacuums are able to go out on barge in the water to suck up 500 gallons before they have to be emptied out.

On land, these wet-dry vacuums take in around 300 gallons.

“Every little bit helps,” said Vac-Tron CEO Don Buckner. “We have to do something and the equipment that we have, while it may collect small amount of oil, it all adds up.”

The company recently showed Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal how their industrial vacuums work on the contaminated coast of Louisiana.

“It was actually heartbreaking to see this beautiful country, these beautiful beaches to be covered with this oil,” Buckner said. “It's a catastrophe that is very difficult to describe. The TV cameras do not do it justice. It is horrific.”

In Lake County, the workers on the assembly line are building two of these industrial vacuums every day, with the high priority of sending them up to the Gulf coast as fast as possible. The company already has 29 of these industrial vacuums in the area, helping to suck up this massive oil spill.

Buckner, who started the company in 1998, said he never envisioned these vacuums being used to clean up such a massive oil spill.

“As you drive the vacuum along, you can collect the tar balls or you can collect the oil out of the skimmers,” Buckner said.

Buckner said on his trip up to the Gulf a couple weeks ago, government leaders in Florida’s Panhandle gave him the cold shoulder when he tried to pitch his product. 

However, when oil started washing ashore, spoiling the white sandy beaches, Buckner said their tune quickly changed.

“Today it has totally turned around 180 degrees,” Buckner said. “They are calling us saying 'how quickly can we get this machine?'”

The company's industrial vacuums range in cost from $30,000 to $50,000.

The CEO said every day the demand for them is different depending on the panic level up along the coast.