Recycling Tire Rubber - Saving Irrigation Water

The Skidmark Story

The discovery that a recycled rubber sheet can be used for irrigation canal lining evolved during a "shop talk" conversation between two longtime friends. One, an industrial rubber sales agent and the other a civil  engineer whose projects frequently required designing water containment methods and materials.

From the first conversation, both agreed that a recycled rubber sheet had the potential to solve some of the problems of conventional exposed lining products but many questions needed to be answered. Foremost, how can this "rubber" sheet be spliced to make a full canal width liner? How can the weight of this thicker sheet be handled? Is it environmentally safe and will it meet the industry expectation of twenty years life?

The combined experience of the two friends working together with Envirotech Extrusion, Inc. proved ideal for the development of this product. One by one the above questions were answered and the results are shown in the photograph below.      

         

ABOVE PHOTO: Skidmark Geomembraneā„¢ in service. Iinstallation completed spring of 2009.

(see Underwood Project)