WHY DEBRIS BOOMS ARE ESSENTIAL FOR CLEAN WATERBODIES

In this blog post, we explain why debris booms are essential for clean waterbodies, highlighting the capabilities of our ranges of Permanent Debris Booms and Modular Debris Booms.

One of the most challenging aspects of maintaining and managing waterways and waterbodies is the accumulation of debris, which poses many issues for operators tasked with keeping them clear as if left unchecked, they can cause significant damage, flooding and pollution.

This is why debris booms are a useful addition to any operator’s arsenal – these floating booms are designed to not only exclude or contain naturally occurring floating debris such as tree branches or seaweed/reeds, but they also effectively block man-made trash that might be floating in the waters.

This not only has the benefit of keeping waterways clean and potable, improve their efficiency and performance as less time and resources will be spent maintaining them, but they also protect critical infrastructure from disruption.

At Bolina, we offer five types of environment booms that are ideal for permanent debris and pollution control at sites where a risk exists: Litter Fence Booms, Log Screen Booms, Permanent Pollution Booms, Permanent Debris Booms and Modular Debris Booms. This blog post focuses on the capabilities of the last two types of environment booms.

Permanent Debris Booms are, as the name implies, permanently installed for the containment and recovery of floating trash.

These booms have a unique flush face for laminar deflection of barrels, logs, trees, reeds, duckweed, and so on, into a collection area where they can be easily extracted for recycling. They have been designed in such a way that work boats can also rub along the face of the debris boom, scooping up materials – this avoids having to inefficiently pick at debris, a method that can also risk damaging the floats, as with conventional debris booms.

One of our PDB600s was recently installed on a project in Norland, Canada, where it has been successfully working to stop debris from getting into a water intake screen. The 20-metre-long boom is supplied with a roller compensator to match varying water levels and has been designed to minimise debris maintenance and to eliminate mechanical maintenance completely, which offers significant advantages.

Its 3-ply rubber/polyester 600mm deep boom curtain has a very high resistance to puncture and tearing, starting with a nominal break load of 8 tonnes. There are even tougher boom curtains available. All of this is protected by a 6.5t shear bolt system.

Furthermore, unique buoyancy floats are attached behind the curtain on the downstream side only, which also affords them maximum protection from any possible damage.

For temporary works such as clearing drainage channels of aquatic weeds and mowing grass banks, Bolina offers its MDB400/600 series of booms that can be easily transported from the back of a van or pickup. The 3-metre sections can be rapidly assembled on the bank for deployment downstream and come with temporary ground anchors.

Once installed, the weed, grass and reeds drifting in the current collect against the boom instead of blocking culverts and sluices further downstream, with the debris picked up from along the boom and taken away.

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Get in touch for further information and advice on our products and services. We have offices in the United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates, and strategic partners worldwide who would be more than happy to help you out.

Bolina is now an Ecocoast company. www.ecocoast.com