Every day there are countless ongoing dredging and marine construction projects ongoing across the United States.  These marine projects are driven by the need for repairs, development, and shoaling.  These work zones typically require equipment and operations to be ongoing in waterways that are normally navigated by boat traffic.  As these projects are executed, safety hazards can often arise not only for the workers themselves, but also for anyone on a boat in the area.  

On October 17, a small commuter plane carrying 42 people skidded off the runway in Unalaska, Alaska.  Unalaska is located in the Aleutian Islands and is home to Dutch Harbor, one of the busiest US fishing ports and a frequent point of reference on the popular Discovery Network TV show "Deadliest Catch."  Two people were critically injured while 10 others required medical care.  Amongst the passengers was a high school swim team.  No one on the swim team was injured.  

Photo Credit:  Jim Paulin

Texas Boom Company has produced a number of silt curtains recently from dredging projects across the US.  As you would expect, as a dredging operation takes place, mud and sand are stirred into the adjacent water.  This material remains suspended in the water until it washes away or settles back to the bottom.  Dredgers use floating silt curtains (turbidity curtains) to keep silk and sediment from migrating while suspended.  This helps to avoid muddying local waterways during the dredging process.  Whether used to meet regulatory requirements or simply as a courtesy to others, silt curtains are effective in helping to reduce sediment runoff. 

Three recent projects are highlighted below, selected because our customers were kind enough to share pictures of the silt curtains in use.  

The first project was a roadway construction project here in Texas.  As can be seen in the image, the silt curtain is effective in keeping the sediment from escaping the construction area.  Because the silt is contained, it will eventually settle in place, leaving the area water clear and free of an abundance of eroded mud. 

The Ocean Cleanup project has launched its second attempt at using a boom system to remove plastic from the world’s oceans.  Last year, the initial design was launched, including the use of a 2000 foot boom to capture floating plastic in the Pacific.  The target is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch located midway between Hawaii and California.   The initial design was launched in September of 2018, but by January, a section of the boom had become disconnected.  In addition, there were issues with the inconsistent speed of how the boom traveled relative to the floating trash. 

The team at The Ocean Cleanup went back to the drawing board to tackle some of the design issues.  Instead of “chasing” the debris, the new design allows for the track to float into the U-shaped boom which is slowed by a large sea anchor.  The boom system was broken down into segments, allowing it to be serviced at sea instead of requiring a tow back to San Francisco.  In addition, the boom size was scaled back to make it feasible for the entire system to be towed at a much higher speed.  Finally, the collection boom and curtain combination has been moved forward of the main boom floatation, reducing structural stress on the overall system. 

This new approach has been launched and is showing early signs of success.  Time will tell if this new design is on the right track, but there’s no doubt that the goal is important to accomplish.  Reducing the trash at sea will certainly lessen the impact on sea life. 

On the early morning of September 8, the MV Golden Ray capsized off the coast of Brunswick, GA in St Simon Sound, approximately 80 miles south of Savannah.  The exact cause of the accident has not been finally determined.  Initially, four of the twenty-four individuals on board were trapped.  They were subsequently rescued safely.  However, the ongoing environmental hazards continue now over a month later. 

Fuel and oil continue to leak from the vessel.  When the accident occurred, the ship contained roughly 300,000 gallons within its tanks.  To date, 220,000 gallons have been successfully pumped off.  Unfortunately, there have been ongoing oil slicks located in the area, as well as oil coating the plant life along shorelines.  Thousands of feet of oil spill containment boom have been deployed in the area to control the spread of the hydrocarbons and protect the shorelines.

The US Coast Guard is leading the Unified Command, a joint recovery and salvage effort between the state of Georgia, the USCG, and the shipping company Hyundai Glovis’ contractor, Gallagher Marine Systems.  Crews of up to 400 people and 70 vessels are participating in the clean-up and recovery effort. 

The skilled craftsmen at Texas Boom Company have quite a bit of experience fabricating coated fabric products to exact customer specifications.  These custom products are sometimes based on existing product designs, while other times they are completely unrelated to TBC's core business.  Regardless, we offer our customers the ability to receive a product that meets their exact needs.

Recently, Texas Boom Company tackled a project to produce a custom-designed inflatable boom product.  These 8-inch diameter inflatable booms were intended to provide flotation for a very specific application.  These custom booms also required the addition of retention loops to serve as guides for this particular use.  Because these booms are inflatable, you can see they require less space to transport and store when not inflated.  Use of a leaf blower or an air compressor can quickly transform these from flat pockets to fully inflated floats.  

Another example of custom fabrication work completed by Texas Boom Company is a set of floats that help self-right a capsized watercraft.  These inflatable balls are constructed similar to the geometry of a soccer ball.  The RF welding provided terrific bonds between each of the side panels.  The valve types used met the customer's exact standards required.  

Bladder Tanks (also referred to as Pillow Tanks) offer users a wide range of applications and flexibility.  Because they can be compressed and rolled or folded when empty, the tanks can more readily be moved and set up in remote locations. Collapsed, the bladders require only a fraction of the space to store. Made of coated fabric, the weight of the material is also typically less than that used in rigid tanks, also making the bladder tanks easier to move.  While the fabric used is very durable, these type tanks are subject to abrasions and tears, so care must be taken during storage, deployment, and use.  When bladder tanks are deployed on rough surfaces, a liner is recommended below the bladder to help reduce wear.  While not suitable for every application, these bladder tanks offer great utility to end-users.  

As the recovery in the Bahamas continues following the damage caused by Hurricane Dorian, it offers a lesson in the value of preparedness.  Companies and governments around the globe work to balance the expense and efforts to plan for all contingencies against the threat of a wide variety of disasters and the resulting damage.  With regard to oil spills, there is no doubt that the damage can vast and extensive.  It highlights the need to have oil spill response equipment on-site and ready for immediate deployment.  Waiting to bring oil spill containment boom, oil skimmers, and other equipment in after the fact, especially when infrastructure may be damaged and access severely limited can often compound an already serious problem.  The sooner the equipment is deployed after a spill, the more effective the containment and recovery efforts will be.   

Photo Credit:  Ramon Espinosa/AP

Recently a historic wooden schooner sank in Hamburg, Germany as the result of a collision with a 462-foot container ship.  The 136-year-old sailing ship had just undergone an expensive renovation and had recently returned to Hamburg from a Danish shipyard.  There happened to be response vessels in the area, and the 43 passengers were quickly rescued.  One passenger was severely injured while four others also incurred relatively minor injuries.  

                Image Source:  DLRG

As the 2019 WEDA Dredging Summit and Exposition wraps up, Texas Boom Company is pleased to announce that Seth Gintz with Certified Laboratories in Charleston, SC was selected as the winner of RTIC 30 Soft Cooler.  This event has proven to be an outstanding opportunity to interact with many of the outstanding dredging companies that operate across the United States and Canada.  

Texas Boom Company serves the dredging industry by providing top quality silt curtains used in dredging and marine construction projects.  TBC offers a wide range of these silt curtains including permeable and impermeable options.  The heights of these silt curtains range from three to 100 feet and they are typically supplied in 50 or 100 foot lengths.  Custom built silt curtains are no problem, as we can accommodate virtually any specification.  

In addition, Texas Boom offers drive-on berms that can be useful to decontaminate or wash down equipment while containing the run-off.  The side walls of these drive-on containment berms are filled with open cell foam that crushes under pressure but flexes back to the original shape, allowing vehicles and equipment to drive in and out without removal of the side wall to allow access.  

Texas Boom Company is pleased to be participating in the 2019 Dredging Summit and Expo, hosted by the Western Dredging Association (WEDA).  This annual meeting brings together many of the leaders in the dredging industry and is a great opportunity for ongoing education and networking.  Texas Boom Company is a burgeoning leader in supplying silt curtains to the dredging industry.  

It's exciting to hear about all the projects underway across the US.  Customization of silt curtains to the exact specifications is a leading topic of discussion amongst our existing and prospective customers here at the show.  Each of these projects is planned and executed with exacting attention to detail.  Texas Boom Company has the ability to quickly deliver customized silt curtains to meet the demanding needs of these dredging customers.  

Come see the TBC display at booth 30.  The event is being held June 4-7 at the Chicago Hilton.  

A collision between a tanker and two barges occurred in the Houston Ship Channel on Friday, May 10, 2019.  The tanker collided with one of the barges, resulting in the second barge capsizing.  The barge damage resulted in a spill of 9000 gallons of flammable material called reformate, which is a gasoline blend.  Six oil skimmers have recovered 376 barrels of product-water mixture.  More than 20,000 feet of spill containment boom was deployed to contain the spill and help protect vulnerable areas.  Salvage teams have secured the two barges and all remaining product has been removed from the damaged barges.  The spill has resulted in some wildlife and fish deaths, and seafood warning was issued by the Texas Department of Health.  Air quality tests in the area have resulted in no actionable levels.  The Galveston Bay Foundation will continue to take water samples for testing.  At this time, the Houston Ship Channel has resumed full operation. 

At Texas Boom Company, we stock a wide range of products that meet the needs of many of our customers.  We develop these core lines of containment boom, silt curtains, and secondary containment berms based on a long history of fabricating these type products per the specifications of our clientele.  TBC has also learned along the way that many of our customers have a unique need that isn’t necessarily addressed by one of our off-the-shelf solutions. 

A recent example includes a new customer who is looking to use silt curtains to help manage the flow of algae and had a few criteria that were important to him as he looked to purchase silt curtains.  His first requirement was a durable fabric that would hold up over repeated use.  He planned to deploy, retrieve and store the silt curtains daily, and he wanted a longer-life silt curtain that would hold up to frequent use. 

Next, the customer was interested in a permeable skirt that would allow water to flow through the skirt to reduce pressure on the silt curtain.  However, it would still be important for the geo-textile used in the silt curtain skirt to impede the flow of algae and vegetation.  These were the fundamental factors that necessitated the need for the silt curtains in the first place. 

Texas Boom Company isn’t the biggest fish in the pond amongst containment boom manufacturers.  However, we are quite adept at working with customers to devised customized solutions to meet their needs and tackle problems.  Recently, TBC landed a call from the owner of a Texas-based fish farming operation.  His recently established 135-acre Redfish (Red Drum) farm is located near Port Lavaca, Texas.  This aquaculture (sometimes referred to as mariculture) operation raises fish that are harvested and sold to restaurants and grocery stores.   Aquaculture is an expanding field, and operating techniques are perpetually evolving. 

The challenge at hand was to utilize a containment boom to address a combination of problems.  When feed was being distributed into the water for the fish to eat, several issues were arising.  It was a common occurrence for the wind to push the floating fish feed to shore before it was consumed by the fish.  As the fish approached the shoreline, it increased their exposure to wading birds that lurked at the side of the fish ponds waiting to prey on the fish.  In addition, the fish food that was not consumed would end up on the shoreline, attracting more birds, and worse yet, wild hogs.  Wild hogs are well known to destroy all sorts of terrain, including the banks of these fish ponds.  Each of these issues translates into unwanted expenses and losses for anyone involved in aquaculture. 

The team at Texas Boom Company worked with the owner of the mariculture farm to develop specifications for a customized containment boom system that was big enough to corral the floating fish feed while not impacting the movement of the fish below the surface.  This collaborative process included a site visit by TBC’s president to fully understand the challenges and land on a successful solution.  Ultimately, a small 6-inch containment boom (3-inch freeboard and 3-inch draft) was agreed upon, with a color selection of black since visibility to boaters was a non-issue.  Because this installation was intended to be permanent, stainless steel nuts and bolts were used to connect the grommets versus installing aluminum quick connectors. This grommeted connector design is the type used on TBC's Type I Turbidity Curtains and is less expensive.  In this case, the containment boom was designed to contain fish feed instead of oil or debris.

Bigger isn't always better.  Sometimes our customers need a custom sized boom to meet a specific purpose.  Depending on the application and conditions, smaller containment boom can be even more effective than larger sized models.  We will profile this particular application in more detail upon completion of the installation, but we wanted to highlight Texas Boom Company's ability to deliver products to a customer's exact specifications.  

In this particular case, a three inch freeboard is combined with a three inch draft to form a containment boom with six inches of total height.  The customer also requested the boom in all black fabric.  Because of the smaller size and installation, the customer also requested no connectors, making this particular product a hybrid between a conventional containment boom and a Type I turbidity curtain.  The sections of custom containment boom are attached with stainless steel nuts and bolts and galvanized shackles.  The shackles provide sturdy anchor points on the boom as well as attaching the sections together at the bottom pair of grommets.  

At the conclusion of the 2019 Clean Waterways Conference and Expo, Texas Boom Company selected a winner via a random drawing from all those who submitted a free entry at our booth.  The winner was  Brendan Crotty, who has served almost 4 years in the US Coast Guard and has earned the rank of MST3.  Brendan is stationed in Memphis, TN. Marine Science Technicians focus on marine environmental protection for the USCG. He was excited to win and we thank him for his service to our country. TBC also appreciates all the others who stopped by and entered the drawing.

Our next drawing will be held at the upcoming WEDA Dredging Summit in Chicago June 4-7.  Stop by booth #30 to see us and drop a business card in to win one of these great soft-sided coolers.  

Texas Boom Company is a proud sponsor of the 2019 Clean Waterways Conference and Exhibition at the Hyatt Regency in Cincinnati, OH Apr 16-18.  By supporting this type event, Texas Boom Company helps to support industry partners across various sectors.  It also puts TBC in very good company, joining many recognizable players in the spill prevention and response industry.  Texas Boom Company is also the only Oil Spill Containment Boom manufacturer sponsoring this event.  

Texas Boom Company is Exhibiting at CLEAN WATERWAYS - Come Visit Us at Booth #502

For busy contractors, staging and deploying containment boom or turbidity curtains is one small part of a much larger and more hectic schedule.  The pipeline, roadway, bridge, or bulkhead has to be completed on time.  Staging it to be ready when the time comes to put the boom or silt curtain into position is more about timing than optimizing storage or prolonging the life of the products.  The containment boom or silt curtain is made to be used outside in difficult condition, so what's the difference?  Many times the longevity of the product is the least of anyone's concerns in the heat of the moment.  Does the image below look familiar?  

We do want to remind our customers on steps to help optimize the useful life of oil containment boom or turbidity curtains.  When at all possible, storing these products in a dry location out of the sun will greatly prolong their life.  If possible, storing them in a container or building that prevents access to rodents is another key priority, as rodents often inflict damage to this type of product.  Rinsing them and drying them (an ordinary leaf blower can be effective in blowing out the ballast chain chamber) prior to stacking them in storage is also recommended.  Re-bundling the boom or silt curtains will make redeployment much quicker and easier.  It is also important to inspect the products prior to storage, and every six months when they are in storage, to be sure that no significant damage has occurred.  

Treat your spill containment boom or turbidity curtains properly, and you will get your money's worth out of them.   Ignore the basic guidelines for proper storage, and you will be replacing the boom and curtains at a much greater frequency.  

Oil spill containment boom is deployed in a wide range of applications.  As such, the containment boom is typically held in place either by anchor systems or by attaching the containment boom to a fixed point on shore.  In this article, we will discuss a particular technique for using beach stakes to hold the oil spill containment boom in place.

In some scenarios, there are permanent structures or pilings that serve as stable anchor points for containment boom.  These can range from docks, piers, pilings, posts, poles or other permanent objects that offer enough strength and stability to hold the containment boom in place.  Factors to consider when assessing the strength required include tides, current, and winds.  Another option is to utilize anchors on land, which allows them to be placed and ensure their security.  This is typically an option used only if the placement is temporary and anchor kits are on hand, as this is a more costly option.  A common solution is the use of stakes driven into the ground along the shoreline to offer a secure point to affix the boom.  

Beach stakes can be something as simple as rebar or metal fence posts, as long the posts are strong and can be driven deep enough to adequately secure the oil spill containment boom.  There are also anchor posts designed to offer better holding strength.  The variety of styles include helix and ground screw type designs.   It is recommended that the standard stakes are driven three feet into the ground to provide adequate holding power when possible.