As President Barack Obama emerged from a meeting with top BP officials yesterday to announce that the company would set aside an initial $20 billion for the victims of the ongoing oil spill (via CBS News), some Coloradans expressed their own thoughts for plugging the gusher.

Richard Stover, a retired engineer, says his idea is akin to “putting a cork in a bottle of sparkling wine” or “trying to put your finger in the garden hose.” His solution involves a 1,000-pound hunk of concrete or metal that would be lowered nearly one mile undersea to the site of the spout, writes Grand Junction’s Daily Sentinel, which provides a handy illustration of Stover’s plan.

Another possible solution comes from Spill Fighters in Golden, a Colorado company led by Brent Tuttle, who believes the secret to cleaning up the gulf lies in using “oil-eating microbes” (via the Examiner).