Stop Sandbagging! Create Underflow Dams in Less than 10 minutes

By the time a phone call arrives at a spill contractor’s office, odds are high that the spill has already reached a storm drain or ditch. When the response crew and all of their gear arrive, the spill may already be miles downstream.

Responding with the right tools and being able to effectively capture the spill earlier will minimize remediation time and detriment to the receiving waters, aquatic life and shorelines. Traditional underflow dams are effective – but they aren’t the speediest option.

Learning to construct an underflow dam is an essential skill for responders. It can take some trial and error to get the right angle for the piping. It can also take hours to fill, haul and drag enough sandbags or backfill enough dirt into the area to properly dam up the stream or creek. But, when the job is done, it’s a very effective way to trap floating oils and debris.

When a fuel or oil spill has reached the water, there’s no time to spare. Even in a moderately flowing creek, the water can easily be moving 4-6 miles per hour. Considering that most spill response teams take at least an hour to mobilize and arrive at a scene, the spill can be well on it’s way before the first truck shows up.

A majority of small creeks and streams are bordered by wooded areas, which makes taking response supplies directly to areas where they’re needed difficult. So, the chances are good that even if everyone’s ready to go the minute they arrive – which is unlikely because no one has even had a chance to do a size up yet – it will take some time to get supplies to the waterway.

Carrying heavy sandbags, pipes, and tools to the edge of the water to create an underflow dam is hard work. And the race to have the underflow dam built before the spill reaches the chosen area is still on.

Underflow damming materials take up a lot of precious room on response trailers. They take lots of manpower to build, and can also create a lot of waste that needs to be handled when the job is done. Isn’t it time for some new underflow dam technology that can be deployed faster, takes up less room in trailers, and doesn’t create waste?

Response teams regularly update instruments and PPE. It’s time to look at other areas of the trailer. Upgrading to reusable Water-Gate Instant Underflow Oil Spill Dams eliminates the shortcomings of traditional underflow damming and gives responders a better tool that can be easily deployed in less than five minutes with just two or three people.

That means that teams don’t have to go miles downstream to have enough time to get a dam in place before the spill hits it. It also means that since you don’t need a dozen responders to build the dam, you can allocate those team members to other response tasks.

Water-Gate Instant Underflow Dams allow spill response teams to react to oil and fuel spills on water faster. This minimizes water pollution, cuts down remediation time and allows teams to utilize their people resources for other response efforts.