Oregon Public Broadcasting

The BP oil spill command center says it's fielding "thousands upon thousands" of inventions and ideas about cleaning up the mess in the Gulf of Mexico. Tom Banse reports on some of the creative thinking coming from the Northwest.

The federal government receives so many unsolicited oil spill cleanup ideas, it has set up several new websites and a hotline just to field them.

Tom Banse / Northwest News Network

An oil eating absorbent boom is prepared for testing on Totten Inlet, Puget Sound.

One businessman navigating the process is the owner of a mail order gourmet mushroom company near Shelton, Washington. Paul Stamets has designed an oil eating absorbent boom.

It is made out of straw mixed with germinated mushroom spores, all stuffed in a burlap tube. After a week in Puget Sound, it is still floating.

Paul Stamets: "Since we know that oyster mushrooms will break down oil, we started thinking how can we address the BP oil crisis. So we've come up with what we think is potentially a novel solution or a step in the right direction for a new tool set of solutions."

Stamets received a boiler plate acknowledgment from the U.S. Coast Guard after he submitted his concept.

The email says "it may take some time" to get an assessment back.