Jesse Rios, a Kingsville inventor, believes his concept machine could clean up the Meet a man with a plan massive oil spill in the Louisiana Gulf. (Photo by Gloria Bigger-Cantu) While many people are scratching their heads trying to figure out a way to stop the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, one Kingsville resident and inventor believes he has the answer.

Jesse Rios, who retired from the Corpus Christi Army Depot after more than 20 years of service, has come up with a solution to remove the oil in the Gulf of Mexico, and he wants to share his concept with British Petroleum officials and anybody interested in solving this environmental disaster that could easily work its way into this area.

A BP well blew out after a rig explosion on April 20 off the Louisiana gulf.

“My concept deals with three different machines that will recover, and store the oil for disposal, ” said Rios as he showed meticulously drawn sketches of the three machines.

He has named his concept ESCAPE and each machine is detailed on three different pieces of paper. He has a small prototype of the concept model.

“The smoking gun is that this concept will help pick up the oil because they do not have anything like I have to offer based on what I have seen or read in the news,” Rios said.

He began visualizing solutions to the oil spill problem two days after he saw the hazardous disaster on television. He told himself that he needed to get involved and starting sketching and designing until he tailored the concept.

“The oil spill concerned me and the people who got killed,” Rios said. We have beaches in this area where the oil could end up here too and kill the fish and destroy the environment in this area.”

Rios has called numerous local elected officials, state officials, the White House, the Coast Guard, the Louisiana governor’s office trying to get his message out to the public because the time to solve this oil spill situation is now. BP has stated the oil spill has cost about $760 million, according to online media reports.

“I called many people, but they didn’t seem to care,” Rios said, “But I care.”

He would like the coastal elected officials to listen to his concept because his machines will remove the oil sludge from the water.

Rios is in the process of obtaining a patent on his concept. He has been contacted by big city patent attorneys who are interested in working with him.

His interest in designing began as a small child when he participated in science projects in elementary school. He created a train that operated on magnetic propulsion.

“I have always been interested in designing and I guess I have a lot of imagination,” Rios said.

During his service with the U.S. Army for three and half years, Rios worked on military trucks and tanks. He received an honorable discharge in 1976. He has worked as a helicopter mechanic and painter and heavy equipment operator. He has worked with mechanical, electrical, industrial and civil engineers and acquired knowledge of blue prints, survey layouts, and infrastructure knowledge. He learned much from his experiences working at the Corpus Christi Army Depot.

CCAD, a Department of Defense Center of technical excellence, is the largest facility of its kind in the world. CCAD overhauls, repairs, modifies, retrofit tests and modernizes helicopters, engines, and components for all services and foreign military customers.

Other CCAD operations provide worldwide on site maintenance services, aircraft analysis, lubricating oil analysis and chemical and metallurgical and training support.

During his tenure with the Corpus Christi Army Depot, as an electrical repairman in the Rotating Electric Shop, he was often commended for the implementation of suggestions he made for designing jigs and testing equipment of numerous aircrafts.

His supervisor and coworkers referred to him as MacGyver, like the television character, because he could make something out of nothing. Rios also created a tool for the Black Hawk helicopter. This tool checks the deicing system on Black Hawk helicopter that is very crucial part of the jet engine so that there won’t be ice build up on an engine cowling, according to Rios.

He was once introduced to the Corpus Christi Downtown Rotary group as a “maverick inventor” who represented the spirit of so many of the CCAD employees. He was introduced by Col. Tom Johnson, the 15th commander of the Corpus Christi CCAD who was the keynote speaker and spoke on the CCAD operations and employees.

“Jesse is an electrician by trade, but he can make anything out of nothing. He is constantly designing tools from scrap material that allows us to do our jobs better. These are wild contraptions to the naked eye, crude by most standards, but the fact is they work,” Johnson stated in a 1993 Viewpoints article published in the Corpus Christi Caller Times newspaper. He worked at CCAD from 1977 until 1998. Today he works on motorcycles and tinkers with mechanical projects.

Rios emphasized that this community and Kleberg County border on coastal areas such as Loyola Beach and Baffin Bay, one of the state’s most popular fishing areas, and a proactive plan needs to be in place in case an environmental disaster happens here.

“Our city, county officials and other leaders need to start preparing or thinking what they are going to plan if the oil spill reaches here,” he said.