Yeah, but would you drink the water?

We got up early and I did T's medicine doses for the coming week. While the coffee was brewing, I turned on the television and happened to catch a spot on the Fox and Friends, Sunday show about a product manufactured by a private company that they claim will fix the problem of the oil spewing up in the Gulf and heading towards our pristine gulf shoreline. It's called Smart Sponge and can be manufactured in any shape and size required. He held up a small piece that looked like a slightly over sized popcorn kernel. In fact, he told the viewers - this was the "popcorn configuration". He proceeded to demonstrate the product with a vial of clear water and a smaller one of motor oil. He poured the oil into the water, capped and shook the vial and then showed the resulting mixed liquid. He held up a second vial that was packed with the Smart Sponge and placed this vial, which had an opening at the bottom, over a third vial. He then poured the mix of motor oil and water onto the Smart Sponge vial. The motor oil stayed in the top vial while clear water ran out the bottom of the middle vial into the empty one at the bottom. He claimed that the product had been demonstrated to the companies that deal with oil spill clean-up. Nobody is using the Smart Sponge. The talant on Fox and Friends wanted to know why not.

I kind of want to know, too. It is apparently in use in drainage cleanup systems and other applications in the country.