‘BORN TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE': Destin man builds oil skimmer in his front yard (PHOTOS and VIDEO)

Days after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded on April 20, lifelong Destin resident Guy Santucci leaped into action to protect the city he loves.

“I am just trying to do whatever I can to make a difference,” he said. “I don’t even know that we can. It’s like fighting a losing battle, but we are trying to do something.”

Santucci, 46, the owner of Coastline Tree Services & Landscaping, along with his stepson and some good friends, have spent more than 100-plus man-hours building a makeshift oil skimmer in the front yard of his Bayou Road home.

The skimmer, which weighs around 500 pounds, is constructed from recycled metal, aluminum and a hollowed out pontoon boat. The device boasts two large wheels that turn the conveyor belt that will sit in the water and pull the oil up into a collection bucket. A 350-gallon fuel tank will be used to store the collected oil.

Santucci said the machine is run by two hydraulic cables and will also utilize a pulley system to collect oil-covered boom from the Gulf.

“We are hoping to get some guys out there to help us with this,” he said. “I don’t want to be a one-man show.”

When asked if he was confident that the skimmer was going to work, Santucci said “Oh yeah. 100 percent.”

“We have already operated it on land,” he said. “The machine is fully adjustable — it’s just going to be trial and error.”

Santucci’s wife, Aubrey, who made a plea to city leaders “to take action” at last week’s emergency City Council meeting, knows her husband is the man to get something done. She told The Log that her husband always comes up with a solution to the problem.

“He is just engineered that way,” she said of her husband’s efforts. “He was born to make a difference.”

The day after the rig exploded in the Gulf, she told her mom that “if anybody in this town is going to save our beaches, it was going to be my husband.”

“I just knew that,” she said smiling.

Stopping for a moment and tearing up, Santucci said he was distraught over the whole situation.

He said this is the worst thing he has ever had to deal with in his entire life, and that he isn’t even sure if the fish are going to be alive by the time that the oil is cleaned up.

“There are just so many questions out there right now,” he said. “I don’t know if anyone knows the answer yet.”

After investing more than a thousand dollars into his project, Santucci said he would like to get paid for his services if his machine was a success, but he “wasn’t expecting it.”

If the city had an open bid for this type of service, they would be interested, but “we are not working for BP and do not plan on working for BP. We are working for our community.”

She added that the skimmer is the best solution available right now.

 “I am really concerned right now,” Santucci said. “Life as we know it is already changing. I have to try and do something, I cannot just sit back and rely on out of towners to save our beaches.”