A longtime environmentalist, Alper was horrified by the accident but, at the same time, inspired to ponder a solution to the enormous challenges of spill removal. Relying on his chemist background in emulsification, Alper retreated to a tiny lab in his basement and threw himself into the project.

After days of boiling linseed oil together with different polymers, Alper discovered that one of his concoctions did a surprisingly good job of clumping non-detergent motor oil together in a beaker of water.

Still unsure of the magnitude of his discovery, he sought the advice of a friend who was among the many consultants in the Valdez crisis.

After viewing the experiment, the response was immediate: "Get a patent - now," his friend told him.

Nearly a decade and numerous refinements later, MYCELX chemistry has demonstrated a successful track record across the world in a number of oil-remediation applications.

Infused into a variety of substrate materials ranging from wood chips to buoyant pads, the chemistry is sold and marketed under a number of different product names. But only in the past year or two   has MYCELX Technologies Corporation now begun to adapt and introduce the same technology to the wastewater treatment industry.

"We knew the crossover into wastewater treatment was going to be a tough sell initially," said David Hilbig of MYCELX Corporaton, "because, let's face it - there are a lot of snake-oil salesman in this industry with lots of pie-in-the-sky promises for new and improved filters. But MYCELX is altogether different -it represents chemistry that is nearly 100 percent effective with only a single pass, no matter if it's combined with sand, glass, metallic products, cellulose or whatever substrate that we infuse it into. And there is absolutely no run-off or problems with toxic residue."

To make their point, MYCELX Corporation officials said they carefully selected and approached a large tank hauling line earlier this year (1998) to propose a series of live field trials. "With all the dangerous hazardous wastes that this company's tank-cleaning division deals with on an everyday business, we couldn't imagine facing any worse conditions for putting our product to the test," Hilbig said.

He added that companies involved in this type of work stand to benefit tremendously from MYCELX filters from both a time and cost-savings perspective. "Meeting all the regulations for hazardous waste clean-up and removal is obviously very expensive," Hilbig said. "The process can be very slow and tedious when you're working with activated carbons and basins. Many companies often get so backed up with the task that they resort to shipping out the toxic waste in drums for treatment and disposal elsewhere, which is even more expensive for them. We look forward to helping this company, and many more like them, rid themselves of a lot of headaches while protecting our environment as well."