Freeboard Technology will build smart and connected water networks of the future for today’s water challenges.
CLEVELAND, Ohio, March 16, 2022 – Today, LimnoTech is announcing the launch of Freeboard Technology, a new environmental technology company that addresses the need for smart, innovative, and connected sensing systems for our nation’s lakes, rivers, and coastal waters. Over the last ten years, LimnoTech has pushed the limits of available sensing technology and maintains the largest network of private real-time data buoys and drinking water intake monitoring sensors in the Great Lakes region. Freeboard Technology will complement LimnoTech’s environmental consulting expertise and bring new water technologies to market, drive down production costs, provide connectivity, and build smart decision sensor dashboards and analytics tools. Access to modern, cost-effective sensing systems is needed to monitor for impacts from climate change, excess nutrient runoff, toxic algae, hypoxia, extreme flooding, dangerous currents, and high winds and coastal erosion. Tim Dekker, President of LimnoTech, sees Freeboard Technology as the right next step: “We work every day with people who urgently need high-quality, real-time environmental data to monitor valuable ecosystems and a changing climate. We’re excited to launch Freeboard to help meet that need.”
Freeboard Technology will be based in Cleveland, Ohio, at the Mid-Town Tech hive ‒ home to vibrant technology and water-focused companies and non-profits. The Cleveland base is particularly meaningful as the Cuyahoga River, which drains to Lake Erie, caught fire nearly 53 years ago due to excessive pollution and neglect. Subsequent environmental laws and regulations now mandate continuous monitoring and regulation of pollution and other water inflows to Lake Erie. Although the direct discharge of industrial pollutants has stopped, Lake Erie today is still heavily impacted by combined sewer overflows, widespread toxic and nuisance algal blooms, hypoxia, and new emerging threats. LimnoTech has worked for years to clean up our nation’s waters using the most advanced science, engineering, and design, dating back to the passage of the Clean Water Act and the signing of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement in the 1970’s. The founding of Freeboard Technology in 2022 marks a continuing commitment to provide the most advanced tools, technology, and foundational research to the water sector.
Freeboard Technology grew out of LimnoTech’s history of applying sensing technology from the telecommunications, healthcare, personal electronics, automotive, and cloud computing industries to the water industry. This includes early warning systems, online nutrient analyzers, and networks of connected buoys and observing platforms. Ed Verhamme, a Principal Engineer at LimnoTech, will lead Freeboard Technology as President. “I’m excited that Freeboard will be able to influence and direct the design, manufacturing, and deployment of networks of new sensors and infrastructure that are needed to monitor and protect our nations’ waters”, said Verhamme. Verhamme added, “The Midwest, including Michigan and Ohio, are fantastic incubators for new water technology development and innovation. Freeboard Technology is ready to transition research to operations and build out the connected sensing networks called for by regional water managers.”
In 2020, Verhamme served a term as President of the International Association for Great Lakes Research (IAGLR). IAGLR and many other agencies and organizations have pointed to the need for increased investments in early warning systems, coastal and wetland restoration, and monitoring networks to track progress towards water quality targets. Other organizations working to advance this space include the Water Environment Federation, International Joint Commission (IJC), US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), and many local, state, and non-governmental organizations.
ABOUT LIMNOTECH
LimnoTech is an environmental science and engineering firm providing water-related services to clients throughout the United States and internationally. Founded in 1975, LimnoTech is an employee-owned company headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with regional offices across the United States. LimnoTech works with clients across a range of sectors to address challenging water resource issues. Our projects have addressed almost every major freshwater issue, including watershed assessment and management, climate resiliency, impacts of water withdrawals, wastewater discharges, agricultural runoff, and ecosystem restoration. Visit limno.com for more information about our work.
ABOUT FREEBOARD TECHNOLOGY
Freeboard Technology is an environmental tech company based in Cleveland, Ohio. Freeboard, a subsidiary of LimnoTech, is building smarter environmental sensor networks for lakes, rivers, estuaries, and wetlands, blending proven and emerging technology to monitor and forecast environmental conditions. The Freeboard Team, led by Ed Verhamme (Principal Engineer at LimnoTech and President at Freeboard), has the experience to design, build, deploy, and maintain a network of complex sensors and integrate data and intelligence from satellites, high-resolution models, and cutting-edge research. To learn more about Freeboard Technology, go to freeboard.tech or email info@freeboard.tech.