Artificial floating island sweeps waterways

Environmental innovation gobbles up pollution

By Ann Piasecki, M.A.
Public Affairs Specialist

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Send Email to: Apiasecki2000@aol.com


BARRINGTON, ILL.--A secluded island paradise away from the hustle and bustle of the city is attractive to waterfowl and people alike. The difference is in the amenities. On the island of Aruba, night clubs and sandy beaches attract crowds like flies to light. On a set of isolated islands in an 8-foot deep pond in a preserve in Barrington, Ill., ducks, geese and a growing variety of migratory birds find the freshly plotted man-made land mass alluring.

In the northwest suburbs of Chicago, 10 islands ranging in size from 25-to 250-square feet have been installed. In essence, they have bypassed evolutionary process in regard to land mass development, and they also work to clean the waterways. These manufactured land masses trap polluting nitrates, ammonia and phosphates, which posed a particular problem for the survival of a 3-acre pond within the Barrington-based Citizens For Conservation (CSF) preserve. The prairie preserve is located at the foot of an upscale housing development, and chemical runoff from lawn fertilizer was polluting the fragile pond, complained CFC President Thomas Crosh. Over a two-year period, 2006-2007, CFC introduced the artificial land masses. And, according to Crosh, they’ve proven effective in cleaning up the pond, which is part of the Flint Creek Watershed system that spreads out over Lake and McHenry counties in Illinois.

Crosh was so enthralled by the results witnessed in Barrington that he acts as an ad hoc ambassador of the project. In a Sept. 15, 2009, telephone interview, he pointed out the long-term benefits of these manufactured wetlands. Known within the scientific community as BioHavens®, these manufactured wetlands are designed to function with minimum maintenance. They’re solar powered and made of plastic, which last for nearly a thousand years. The potential for large-scale projects continue to evolve as the powers that be in government acknowledge a responsibility for actively cleaning up the world’s waterways.

Practical Aspects

In practice, the filtering system works because it consist of a buoyant combination of recycled plastic and foam that makes up the island base; it’s then fortified with an enriched potting soil mixture and woven within the fabricated botanical surface. Set loose for only a few short weeks under the sun’s nurturing rays, and the floating man-made mass becomes a bona fide wetland.

This revved up process of vegetative growth is the brainchild of Bruce Kania, who is an inventor with a passion for nature as well as the founder of Floating Island International (FII) LLC in Shepherd, Mont. On the cusp of 21st century environmental innovation, the Montana project demonstrates how a profusion of flora can mature almost at the speed of light. The result is a cost-efficient way to manufacture a fabricated island designed for rapid fire environmental transformation. Kania’s goal is a multifaceted one, including collaboration with wildlife by offering the features of a natural wetland habitat, purifying waterways and launching environmental/business partnerships with governmental agencies, aquatic distributors and university researchers.

Since 2006 FII has established several nationwide distributorships and launched more than 3,000 islands around the globe. Fabricated islands have proven themselves successful in filtering out pollutants from a sewage plant holding pond in Daughin County, Penn. to a highly polluted coastal region in Singapore.

Anne Kania, spokesperson for FII, in a telephone interview noted that the fabricated islands are modeled to mirror as close as possible the planet’s natural wetlands. “We base ours on natural habitats. They mimic floating peat bogs,” a type of wetland that brews the stuff of life. Its mushy terrain nurtures creation above and below the water. On top a potent supply of peat attracts microbes and provides a home for windblown seeds that sprout into a variety of thick-leaved shrubs, plants, grasses and trees. Waterfowl and insects make their home on the spongy habitat as well. On the underside is a diverse haven of organic matter that works as a natural filtering system and the more regal roots from the plants above sink down into the water where they thrive on the rich source of floating nutrients. The dangling, tentacle-like roots invite fish to feed off their excess.

Lab research has proved that the artificial bog, which the Kanias define as a Floating Treatment Wetland (FTW), is capable of neutralizing major water pollutants, such as phosphates and nitrates along with suspended and dissolved heavy metals. So far the company has launched islands in the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, as well as the United States. Meanwhile Montana’s Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, the United States Department of the Interior and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have been receptive to Kania’s project as it concerns watershed clean up.

Since the artificial islands are put together like modular puzzles, the eventual dimensions, including size and thickness, are never an issue; it’s never too heavy, she said. In fact, an FTW installation in Montana served as the site of the Kania’s wedding ceremony and reception, which was attended by 50 people and featured a gazebo.

The FTWs can be as hardy as necessary and constructed with a glass bottom feature for viewing and research purposes, she said. The possibilities and applications of BioHavens® or adapted configurations are endless, according to Anne.

Ultimately, she said, these accelerated versions of natural models are intended as a way to give back to humanity by helping to heal the environment, she said.

To arrange for a guided view of the floating islands, contact Crosh at:
Citizens For Conservation, (847) 382-7283, 459 W IL Route 22, Barrington, IL

Check out Kania’s Web site at: http://www.floatingislandinternational.com/index.php

Piasecki’s original article, published in Fall 2008 in the Wheaton Franciscans’ Mother Earth Sister Peace magazine, was updated in September 2009.