Minnesota has over 10,000 lakes, and many property owners on those lakes have had to deal with soil erosion along the shoreline.

 

For decades, people have attempted to find a method to stop the erosion that is both cost effective and environmentally safe.

 

Midwest Erosion Technologies (MET), a company based in Minnetonka, has the solution.

 

“Our system is designed to stabilize the shoreline. It filters nitrates, phosphates - fertilizers polluting the water, and it’s biodegradable,” says MET founder and CEO Daniel Schaaf. 

 

Back in college, Schaaf was doing landscape work. That included building rock walls. He was also using rocks in the “rip rap” system to control erosion on shorelines in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

 

Schaaf says back then, there were very few companies doing shoreline erosion control. But one company from India was using organic material to stop shore erosion.

 

“They were shipping coconut logs to the U.S. They put it along the shoreline, which integrates into the coconut. Eventually it grows new earth in the water and filtrates and buffers pollutants from entering the water,” says Schaaf.

 

Also at the time, the DNR was in the process of eliminating the rock rip rap system to control erosion. 

“Studies showed rock was absorbing solar heat and changing the natural temperatures of lakes,” says Schaaf. “And it couldn’t filter or buffer any of the nutrients from rain water wash that was causing algae.”

 

Schaaf didn’t have any experience with the organic system at the time, and knew it would be very expensive to ship coconut to compete with the company from India.

 

He confronted the DNR and suggested there could be other organic materials used with the same result. 

 

“They agreed. They gave me a chance to develop my own system. I started out my research with cornstalks. I thought we should use something that supports the local economy,” he says.

 

Over the next 13 years, he experimented with different materials on small projects on lakes and other bodies of water using local  organic materials encased in fabric.

 

What he developed is an ingenious double-membrane system that is now called Sox. It comes in lengths from six to 12 feet wide and from 25 feet to 100 feet long.

 

The outer layer is a strong, protective mesh made from polyethylene. The inner layer is burlap. 

 

“Ours is the only system that uses burlap. It helps retain moisture,” says Schaaf.

 

The Sox is staked along the shoreline, filled with organic material and then folded back on itself to make an enclosed system filled with material. It stabilizes the ground, and since it’s all organic, it breaks down into soil over time. It has the ability to re-grow aquatic plants while filtering rain runoff that carries pollutants.

 

“You can use any local source organic material and it degrades back into the earth,” says Schaaf.

 

He’s done projects in different parts of the U.S. with lots of success. Locally, he did a 100’ long project for the lake association in Big Lake and another in Elk River.

 

Last week, he and his crew did another project on Lake Orono using wood chip mulch as the organic material.

 

“We only use hardwood. We don’t use pine because we don’t want the sap and acidity going into the water,” he says. “When we put this system in, we’re going to stop erosion today. 

 

Then we want to get back what’s been lost.”

 

The system is also very cost-effective because there’s no need to stockpile organic materials from other areas and haul it to the site. It can all be acquired locally near the project site.

 

Two years ago, Schaaf opened another company that sells the patented sock membrane. Sox Erosion Solutions, based in Florida, sells the material directly to anyone looking to install their own living shoreline  system.

 

For more information, contact Schaaf at 651-353-5144.