Technology from this company, located in the village of Rodney in the Municipality of West Elgin, is being used internationally to prevent the erosion of land. It is protecting property and lives, too.

The company is called International Erosion Control Systems. It was founded in 1984 by two local farmers, Louis Arvia and Charlie Chase, who were initially involved in the ready-mix concrete business.

They perfected an idea for an erosion-control product called Cable Concrete. It is made of concrete blocks a few inches thick that are fashioned into a flexible mat by linking them in grids with stainless steel cables. When laid on top of a porous polyester base cloth on channels, spillways, slopes and banks, access roads and boat ramps, the mat protects the underlying soil from washing away while still enabling people and vehicles to travel on the surface if necessary.

To produce engineering specifications for their product the partners enlisted the help of Dr. Alex McCorquodale, then a professor of engineering at the University of Windsor. His students engineered and tested Cable Concrete as a thesis project.

Arvia and Chase subsequently patented the product, incorporated their company and set out to advertise on the Web and attend international trade shows to find customers.

They found plenty. Civil engineering companies building water-management projects realized that Cable Concrete was a solution for erosion problems that occur everywhere.

If, say, a storm sewer is built to feed into a tailing pond, the engineering company will specify to the construction contractor that Cable Concrete should be laid down in the stream bed to prevent soil from washing into the pond. The contractor then orders the product from International Erosion Control Systems.

“We’re the only ones who manufacturer the product in Canada and the US – the only ones with the patent and special molds,” says Arvia, who is president of the company.

Annual sales have grown in the past five years to $4.5 million from $1 million. Production capacity has quadrupled to 7,200 square feet and the partners now employ 22 people in West Elgin.

A subsidiary company, International Erosion Control Systems Inc., is based in Tampa, Florida. There is a joint-venture company in Mexico. A company in Malaysia has purchased the rights to use the patent for Cable Concrete in that country.

In April of this year, International Erosion Control Systems initiated operations with a joint venture based in Owerri, Nigeria, with the goal of selling Cable Concrete throughout Africa.

“We would like to set up more offices in other countries,” Arvia says. “We have a product that can help people who have no other solutions.

“On my last trip to Nigeria I was walking through a small village with our partners and some government officials and saw that people are losing their homes into gullies and valleys. Lives are at stake, and we are the only ones moving forward to help them.

“In Mexico, two years ago they had a hurricane that lasted two days, and a channel flooded in a valley and eroded the banks. People were killed. Now they have reconstructed and raised the banks, and we put our mats on them so in future they will not be threatened.

“It makes us feel good. We have a solution to a big worldwide problem.”

Arvia and Chase have also invented concrete retaining walls and headwalls similar in concept to Cable Concrete. In their most recent creative project, they have invested $2 million in equipment to make cellulose insulation out of old newspapers, as well as hydro mulch spray that holds moisture in the ground in and helps grass seed germinate faster.

Such bold inventiveness holds promise to give International Erosion Control Systems an even stronger position as a leader in the environmental industry in Elgin County – and the world.