“Making history is extremely cool.” ~ Samuel L. Jackson

ISCO’s Legacy in HDPE Solutions

ISCO has been at the forefront of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) piping solutions since its founding in the 1960s.

And as you might expect, that has put us in the position of “making history” when it comes to HDPE on many occasions.

The early leader of historic milestones is an incredibly lengthy list of firsts.

Like Kirchdorfer Irrigation Company installing the first automatic irrigation system in Kentucky.

Record Breaking Projects

Gaining ground are those distinctions that fall under the “largest” category.

Like the 78-inch canal enclosure at Steinaker Canal in Utah – the largest diameter HDPE high-pressure water pipe in US history.

Or the Point Wastewater Treatment Plant in Victoria, British Columbia and the offshore outfall in water depths of more than 200 feet, which called for the construction of more than a mile of “float and sink” pipe installed 88-inch HDPE pipe – the largest solid wall HDPE outfall in North America.

Recently we talked at length about the 35,000-pound geothermal vault at Princeton University – the largest pre-fabricated HDPE geothermal vault ever constructed.

The lists of largest go on and on and continue to be rewritten by our own impressive efforts.

Historic Contributions

Sometimes being in on history is a circuitous route that puts you on the back end of the milestone, like ISCO’s work on the Arkansas Valley Conduit.  You may recall the final steps of the Fryingpan-Arkansas (Fry-Ark) Project that the United States Congress and President John F. Kennedy authorized on August 16, 1962.

And sometimes it is just the opposite – time will tell us HOW historic a project is well after the work has been done.

New Chapter: Baltimore’s Inner Harbor Wetland Project

Restoring the Chesapeake Bay’s Tidal Wetlands

At the confluence of the Patapsco River and the Northwest Harbor, an area known as the “Inner Harbor”, docks and bulkheads have long since replaced the tidal wetland marshes that dominated Chesapeake Bay before population booms and the industrial revolution.

The quality of the water and the accompanying marine life have taken a step back.

So that posed the question:  “How can we take steps to recreate a facsimile of life as it existed in the wetlands before the human presence turned it for the worse?”

The National Aquarium answered: “Attempt to build a wetland habitat that attempts to replicate life in the 1700s.”

The Aquarium, which sits on the harbor, began studies in the late 2000s on how bring back that wetland habitat.

Project Evolution

The first prototype was built in 2010 and was retired in 2013.  Version two was the second swing and miss in 2012.

The third attempt in 2015 capitalized on the use of HDPE and remains in place to this day.

In July of 2022, after the pandemic put the project on pause, ISCO had conversations with Coastal Marine Construction and the National Aquarium about the wetland project.

Innovative Design and Manufacturing

A year later a purchase order was placed for 208 HDPE floats and ISCO had an instrumental role in the design process for the HDPE portion of the wetland float.

The floats live up to their name because of two 26-inch HDPE pipes that sit below the surface the full length of two sides of the float – like a pontoon.  This sets it apart from other efforts to create a floating wetland because the HDPE piping allows the operator to adjust the air inside the pipe based on the weight of the natural growth on the platform.  As the flora expands and grows, the ballast can be adjusted to accommodate the change instead of watching it sink into the harbor.

The pontoon system keeps the platforms at a consistent level as the tides wax and wane and allows workers to walk on them freely for maintenance or teaching and demonstrations.  In addition, there is no concern about the durability or any adverse reactions to the brackish water conditions in the Inner Harbor.

The production schedule said it would take six months to complete the order, but the Aquarium wanted them in four months.  ISCO’s manufacturing team put all wheels in motion and all 208 floats were delivered for final assembly five months after the order was placed.

In addition to the manufacturing and delivery, an ISCO field technician welded 30 1-inch ports on site.  There are portions of the exhibit that are intended as a future location for oysters.  These 30 floats which are primarily on the perimeter, required the port to allow the contractor to control the buoyancy by flooding the pontoons.  Since they lack the additional weight of the grass and shrubs, this allows them to sit lower than the center portion of the exhibit.

However, the delivery of the floats was just the beginning of the extensive on-site efforts to build the wetland.

An intricate network of mesh-like polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fibers, recycled from plastic waste, provides a layered base for the over 130 native shrubs and nearly 40,000 grasses to be placed.

A river-like channel of water will flow through the entire complex, creating a moving water habitat, while air is being introduced in multiple levels and locations aerating the upper levels of the water column.  The aeration during the early installation showed immediate results in marine life gravitating toward the system.

The Impact and Future

Officially opening late summer of 2024, the National Aquarium’s pioneering Harbor Wetland offers a gleaming gem of life amid the most urban of settings.  One that hopes to illuminate not only the possibility, but the plausibility of such a venture.

The quality of the water in the Inner Harbor of Baltimore will steadily improve between the 3rd and 4th Pier at East Pratt Street with the promise that the same impact can be made on coastlines and waterways around the world in the shadows of an industrial footprint.

Subsequently, aquatic life will get the support they have lacked for hundreds of years as a vibrant tidal marsh ecosystem takes hold in the shadows of the historic Pratt Street Power Plant.  The most promising early evidence of the success was a visit to the education deck of the exhibit in mid-June by a pair of curious river otters, a rare visitor to the Inner Harbor, and a hopeful sign of what the future could hold.

The otters frolicked on the same education deck that will allow the aquarium to teach generations the importance of this type of undertaking, and the history of the marine life of the extensive marshlands in the Chesapeake Bay region.

And while the vision and action of the National Aquarium and partners like Coastal Marine Sciences, Inc. supporting the historic concept moved it forward, it is the practical use of ISCO and HDPE that is literally keeping it afloat.