A Shepherd-based company says new research supports what its CEO has been arguing for years: that restoring the ecological health of nutrient-choked lakes and ponds may do double duty, cleaning the water while also cutting methane emissions from those same water bodies. The findings add a climate dimension to technology that was originally developed with water quality as its primary goal.
Bruce Kania, CEO of the company, has built a business around floating constructed wetlands — essentially buoyant mats planted with native vegetation that are anchored in ponds and lakes. The root systems hanging below the surface create habitat for microorganisms that break down excess nutrients, the kind that come from agricultural runoff and development. Cleaner water is the intended outcome, but Kania's latest research suggests the biological activity also suppresses the conditions that produce methane, a greenhouse gas that is considerably more potent than carbon dioxide over a short time horizon.
Methane is a byproduct of decomposition in oxygen-poor water, the kind that tends to accumulate in nutrient-heavy ponds. The theory behind the company's findings is that by introducing oxygen and biological activity through the floating islands, the water body shifts away from the anaerobic conditions that generate methane. If the research holds up to further scrutiny, it would give the technology a second sales pitch — not just cleaner water for rural Montana landowners and municipalities, but a measurable contribution to emissions reduction.
The company is based in Shepherd, in Yellowstone County east of Billings, but its technology has been deployed in water bodies across the country. Kania has been making the case for floating island wetlands for more than a decade, and the methane research represents an attempt to quantify a benefit that his customers may have been receiving without knowing it.