California’s Forest Lake Reservoir Develops “Pebble Beach Tan”

That’s how Burke Industries describes the colour of new leak-proof liner sitting under California’s Forest Lake Reservoir, which is made with three layers of DuPont Performance Elastomers’ Hypalon chlorosulphonated polyethylene (CSM), and two layers of woven fabric scrim.

Hypalon is easy to colour, Steve Roades, vice-president of Burke Industries, the San-Jose, Calif. firm that manufactured the lining’s material, said.

“Pebble Beach Tan” was a custom-colour developed to blend into the environment, which owes its name to the Pebble Beach golf course. Forest Lake Reservoir supplies the golf course with its water.

Vancouver-based Layfield Plastics Inc. prefabricated the material into 93,000 square meters worth of panels.

Hypalon was chosen due to its excellent resistance against tears and punctures. Plus, additionally cross-linking develops over time, increasingly toughness and weatherability. It is UV-resistant and remains stable and flexible at both high and low temperatures.

Expected to last at least 25 years, the liner met the stringent leak-proofing, soil-stabilizing and environmental demands required by the California Department of Water Resources Division of Safety Dams (DSOD).

The liner material was manufactured by San Jose, Calif.-based Burke Industries, and constructed in 1887, Forest Lake Reservoir had sat unlined until the early 1990s when a new reservoir was commissioned in response to concerns that should the reservoir’s embankments became saturated, they could erode during an earthquake.

The new Forest Lake Reservoir covers 9.3 hectares and has a permitted storage capacity of 397 million litres.

E.I. du Pont Canada Co. — Engineering Polymers Division (Mississauga, Ont.); www.plastics.dupont.com; 800-268-3943