As oil continues to gush into the Gulf of Mexico, some B.C. companies are coming to the aid of those trying to contain the massive spill.
Premier Gordon Campbell has also offered to send 15 provincial environmental emergency response officers and 30 other specialists south to help with the clean-up.
Since news of the spill broke, everyone at Burnaby's Versatech has been busy testing the 12,000 feet of booms that will be sent to Louisiana on Monday.
The booms are designed to stop the oil from spreading. Some float, and others rest on the shore.
The company has had to triple its production to keep up with the demand.
"The phone keeps ringing. Everyone is looking for equipment. Unfortunately, there isn't much of it around," Versatech president Saeed Javadi told CTV News.
This is the largest project that Javadi has worked on since the Exxon Valez spill in Alaska, when 11 million gallons of oil seeped from a tanker into the water of Prince William Sound.
Even though that spill was more than two decades ago, Javadi says the technology to contain the oil remains the same.
"At that time we increased our production and were almost continuously producing for about a year after it happened. We expect the same thing is going to happen here," he said.
"There's going to be oil in the water here that will sink and come up at a later period.
North Vancouver's Aquaguard is one of the only companies in the world that makes skimmers, remote controlled devices which suck in as much as one barrel of oil per second.
"There are currently three of these systems being sent from Mexico towards the spill," Aquaguard's chief operating officer Cameron Janz said.
"Next week we're going to be sending more skimmers down there for some of those smaller lakes or rivers or marshlands areas for sure."
But good technology only goes so far, and Javadi says there are still challenges ahead.
"Down in the Gulf of Mexico, there are many waves, which is pushing the oil over the booms, so the boom is put in place, but the oil is going over it and spreading further."
So for now, companies like Versatech and Aquaguard can only keep rolling out the orders as quick as they can.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Norma Reid