There is a reason the Columbia River Gorge is known as “Mother Nature’s wind tunnel.” Running east to west for 80 miles, the Columbia River cuts a sea level channel through the Cascade Mountains, a path that explorers Lewis and Clark followed.
The north side of the Columbia is Washington and the south side is Oregon. Its tributaries include Washington’s White Salmon River and Oregon’s Hood River.
When the wind swirls down the Columbia River Gorge, kiteboarders, windsurfers, and whitewater rafting enthusiasts shriek with delight. But the same wind that makes their fun possible makes hydroseeding and erosion control work much more difficult.
Barry Cook knows this firsthand from his work on an unusual project. His Sunmark Seeds company is working on a two-year revegetation project about 3 miles from where the White Salmon River joins the Columbia. It is the area around the old Condit Dam.
When the Condit Dam was built in 1913, the White Salmon River backed up to form Northwestern Lake. Beneath the lake were the stumps of trees that had first been cut down to make the lake safe for boats.
Years later, federal regulations protecting salmon required that PacifiCorp, the dam’s owner, install technology that would allow fish to pass the dam. The corporation decided it would be less expensive to remove the dam instead. Using 700 pounds of dynamite, PacifiCorp engineers breached Condit Dam in October 2011. The resulting 13- by 18-foot opening let Northwestern Lake drain in less than an hour.
The White Salmon River Canyon reappeared when Northwestern Lake was drained. It is being contoured to its original state, and Sunmark Seeds is revegetating and reforesting its shores.
Because the river-fed lake deposited silt for nearly 100 years, engineers weren’t entirely sure where the original riverbank was. They’re using those tree stumps along the shores of the dry lakebed as their guides.
For this revegetation project, Sunmark is using a Finn HydroSeeder, the same equipment Cook uses on other projects. “Our Finn equipment is efficient. It’s reliable,” he says. “It allows us to perform a lot of work covering a lot of square footage. I like the way it works.”
Photo: SUNMARK SEEDS
Hydroseeding in the White Salmon River Canyon, near the site of the Condit Dam
Photo: FINN CORP.
Hydroseeding gets under way near the Condit Dam site.
Operating the HydroSeeder is one thing; getting it to the site is another.
“We literally had to mount our Finn T170 on a great big dump truck, a Marooka,” Cook explains. “We disengaged the truck’s dumping mechanism and welded, winched, and chained the HydroSeeder to it.”
This innovative coupling of the HydroSeeder and the flat rubber-treaded truck was necessary, he says, for “75% of that job, because we couldn’t get any kind of wheeled vehicle on those slopes.”
Indeed, the access was so limited that Cook initially considered an aerial application. “The site was broken into three distinct aspects. Each required a different seed mixture, given the types of soil, the ability to retain moisture, and the amount of sun on the area.”
Cook praised the general contractor’s work in regrading the area to its historic topography and stabilizing the silt that had built up, because that made the hydroseeding work easier.
He says that another challenging aspect of the project is the climate of the area. “We were right on a climatic border. The motto in the small town of White Salmon, WA, is “˜where the sun meets the rain.'”
He adds, “We transitioned from a site with significant rain area to the beginning of a very arid part of our state. We were revegetating native species that meet a wide variety of agency oversights.”
Reflecting on weather at the site, he says, “currently the Pacific Northwest is experiencing record-setting warm, dry temperatures, with fairly serious fires. A unique set of climatic conditions has conspired to slow down the vegetation process, but you have to be prepared, regardless.”
Complying with the environmental requirements of numerous state and federal agencies called for careful planning. “So many different agencies have a finger in that plan that it becomes the greatest challenge to meet it,” he says. “Failure to revegetate is not an option. In the old days we could seed, and if it didn’t grow we’d likely get paid to go back and reseed. Now permit completion agreement coverage dictates minimum success criteria that will allow the project to be taken off the books [so we get paid]. That success criteria-the whole issue-will not go away.”
Revegetation on the project is about 55 to 60 acres. Sunmark’s workers seeded all but 6 or 7 acres in September 2012. Those remaining sections had to be done later.
The Sunmark team also used its Finn HydroSeeder to do early-stage dust control before doing the permanent revegetation. Cook says that time was advantageous. “We were able to spend a week on site in August. I think it was that time period allowing us to get our feet wet and get comfortable at the site that made the September revegetation go well,” he says.
Sunmark will do the second phase of the work in spring 2013, again using tracked vehicles to take workers and materials in to hand-plant thousands of tree seedlings.
Conifer species native to the site include ponderosa pine and western red cedar. For deciduous trees, crews will plant red alder, Oregon ash, and two or three other species.
“This is going to be a high-level, legacy type project,” Cook says. “On a project like Condit Dam, that lasting impression is what’s happened with the revegetation effort.”
Another Sunmark erosion control project was the revegetation of US Highway 20 from Pioneer Mountain to Eddyville, OR, following bridge building and highway realignment. This big project took place over several years, ending in 2011.
The project’s goal was to make the highway from Corvallis to Newport safer by replacing deadly hairpin curves with a 6.5-mile stretch of new roadway. Traffic congestion was also lessened by adding lanes of highway where there had been long stretches of no-passing zones. Eight new bridges were also added.
Sunmark Seeds provided and applied seed mixes for erosion control, wetland mitigation, and stormwater facility bioremediation. In 31 years of hydroseeding and erosion control work-one of his first hydroseeding jobs was revegetating after the Mount St. Helens volcanic eruption-Cook worked for the first time with two other erosion control contractors on the same project at the same time.
A design/build project, the highway’s Eddyville site access “was incredibly challenging,” Cook says. The team used its Finn HydroSeeder, but this time “as a mixing station.” Sunmark workers put the hydroseed mixture into buckets so it could be transported and applied by helicopter in the mountainous area.
Natural Gas Projects
Across the country from Sunmark Seeds is another company involved in different types of erosion control projects. Alan Houck serves as environmental compliance manager for Brubacher Energy Services, which has its headquarters in Bowmansville, PA.
“My role is based on getting the work and doing the work-for example, erosion control from planning, suggestions to regulatory officials, and strategy to the application of product and verifying quality control,” Houck explains.
Brubacher Energy Services is the name that the parent company, Brubacher Excavating Inc., designated for its division that does natural-gas-line projects on the northern tier of the Marcellus shale in Pennsylvania. BES work includes hydroseeding for erosion control.
Working on a reclamation project for a private client in Pennsylvania, the team of Brubacher workers used Profile Products’ Flexterra, Neutra-Lime, and JumpStart “on all slopes greater than 2:1 from pipeline right of way, access roads, well pads, and freshwater impoundments,” Houck says.
At the site of the Camp Pendleton fire, crews prepared the seed mixture and loaded it into helicopters. The mixing was a critical part of the project.
Different parts of the project varied in size, he notes. “The well pads-which did receive erosion control blankets to achieve Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection compliance-ranged from 2 to 3.5 acres.” Other sections were larger. “The access roads totaled nearly 22 acres, and the pipeline totaled nearly 10 acres.”
Houck says many variables influenced work time required for the project, including site access, proximity to water sources, and regulatory water shutdowns because of low water volume. The hardest part of the project? “The right of way was definitely a challenge. One area was more than a 900-foot drop. Once we established a strategy, it was getting my rig attendant to find the happy medium of surge to charge the line.”
He notes, “We lost a good bit of time to “˜unclogging’ jams of material within the 900 feet of strung 1.5-inch flexible hose. Once we solved the mystery of the needed rpm’s, the project moved along smoothly.”
At one point Houck was guiding workers who had not had as much steep slope application experience as he has. “It was a relatively inexperienced team; trying to facilitate two critical areas-rig attendant and applicator-at once was tasking.”
Houck says that no part of the project was easier than expected because “there is always an element that fits into the equation that was unexpected, thus revealing the team’s ability to overcome and still deliver.” However, he says, the project went more smoothly because of “the customer service provided by JMD Co. regarding product delivery, and Profile support being available to answer inquiries regarding application rates of Neutra-Lime and JumpStart.”
He notes that weather, terrain, and location all influenced work on the project. “We searched for weather windows so that the product could cure, and the terrain is what the Almighty had placed in front of us, so we dealt with the canvas, and the location is out of our hands since the engineering community sees only lines on paper and not the real on-the-ground picture.”
For this project and others, Houck has been pleased with the performance of Profile Products’ erosion control products. Dealing with the uncertainties of weather and terrain, he appreciates Profile’s consistent quality. “We know the quality and performance the product will deliver. I know it works when we apply it per their suggested rates. My team and I get the kudos for doing it right and making once-forested conditions into lush fairways and lawn type environments.”
Houck says that “erosion control blankets have their place; however, all mountainous terrains cannot be groomed to look like pool tables to adequately receive the product and perform. Hydroseed and hydromulch applications do not hide what’s underneath.”
Reflecting on the project, he adds, “if we had applied blankets to the pipeline right of way, I feel we would be going back and trying to do something over that should have been done right the first time. Doing the work twice does not pay.”
Camp Pendleton Fire
After a fire burned 115 acres at Camp Pendleton in California, the US Marine Corps called up Hydrosprout of Escondido, CA, to restore the land. Hydrosprout, owned by Larry and Suzanne Brendis, drafted S&S Seeds in Carpinteria, CA, to provide the products required for the job.
“We used wood-fiber mulch, paper-fiber mulch, binder, and seed that was site-collected from Camp Pendleton,” says Mark Webster, operations manager at Hydrosprout. “All products were from S&S Seeds.”
Founded in 1975, S&S Seeds is a wholesale company that supplies wildflower, grass, shrub, and California native plant seeds to companies working in reclamation, erosion control, and landscaping. S&S carries seeds from more than 900 species of plants.
Premeasured wildflower and other seed mixtures are available. However, S&S is best known for custom designing seed mixtures for specific projects.
The company’s seed experts consider climate, soil type, available moisture, and other factors. If necessary, they secure permission to collect seeds onsite so that the native plants will thrive there.
“We use S&S seeds often; they are the largest native seed supplier in the Western states. They carry or can collect a wide variety of native seeds,” Webster says.
His Hydrosprout crew took three weeks to complete the project at Camp Pendleton, using two Bowie Imperial 300 hydroseeding machines. The rugged terrain meant that the area was inaccessible to the machines, so the seed mixture was spread from a helicopter.
“Mixing of the hydroseed materials was also a critical part of the project. We had to make sure it was the right consistency for the helicopter’s bucket to pick it up out of the mixing tank that our hydroseeding machines were feeding,” Webster explains.
He notes that “the weather definitely could have played a role in this project. Fortunately for us, we had awesome weather that didn’t interfere with the helicopter’s ability to perform.” The site’s inaccessibility meant that “we did a lot of hiking through the mountainous terrain to make sure we were getting good coverage from the helicopter drops,” he says.
“Taking on a project of this magnitude can be a little stressful at times. What was amazing about it was that once we got going each day, we got into a good rhythm with the helicopter contractor and our crews that were mixing the hydroseed,” Webster says. “We completed the project ahead of schedule with no complications. It was a very rewarding project for Hydrosprout.”
Of hydroseeding, Webster says, “All of our business deals with erosion control. Vegetation resulting from hydroseeding is the best line of defense for erosion control.”
An Environmental Showplace
Gregory Seeding & Landscaping, is located in Pulaski, VA, in the southwest part of the state in the Blue Ridge Mountains and the New River Valley. The company offers commercial and residential services, focusing on landscaping and erosion control.
As superintendent, Tim Gregory is the third generation to work in his family’s business. His grandfather founded the company in 1959, and Gregory grew up wanting to work with his father. “I liked watching my dad work at work. He was my hero,” Gregory says.
Now he’s involved with the company’s hydroseeding and erosion control projects, such as the one along Interstate 81 in southwest Virginia. It’s a section that sees 80,000 cars per day. Gregory Seeding started working on the highway sides in spring, 2012, taking over for a contractor that couldn’t handle the work.
“I have a letter from the Virginia Department of Transportation [VDOT] thanking us for our work,” Gregory says proudly. “We have turned it from an eyesore to an environmental showplace.”
VDOT scores contractors’ work on state projects. Gregory Seeding scored a 92 out of 100 possible points. After working as long as the weather permits during the winter, they’ll finish in the spring of 2013, seeding the shoulders of the highway and final cuts. The project covers about 160 acres and the work is done by Gregory Seeding’s regular crew of five plus Tim Gregory.
The most difficult part of the project is the very limited access. “Ninety percent of this job is on a slope of 1 to 1 or 1 to 1.5,” Gregory says. “Low areas are about 55 feet tall; medium are 85 to 100 feet tall. Our largest cut is 385 feet tall. Dragging 300 feet of hose on a bulldozer to the top isn’t easy.”
In the early months of the project, the workers had 6 to 7 miles of secondary roads to drive every day to reach the job site. The Norfolk and Southern Railroad runs in and out of the area. Its bridges are only 9.5 feet tall, while the hydroseeding machine on its delivery truck tops out at 13 feet. “Now the highway barriers and subgrades are up, it’s much easier to cut through to the job site,” Gregory says.
“We’ve seen a lot more drier weather this summer. That’s a little challenging for the vegetation, especially in an area that’s 90% rock,” he notes. However, a nice surprise was that “the state was open on the seed mixture. They let us choose what to plant.”
Work on the I-81 project has been done with the help of a Bowie Industries 3000 hydroseeding machine. “That’s all we’ve used since 1974, when my dad took over the company,” Gregory says.
“We’ve Got the Seed”
B&B Hydro-seeding is co-owned by Roger Bowling and Steve Brinson. The company is located in Ringwood, OK, but performs work in Texas and the Marcellus shale area of Pennsylvania, providing erosion control on oil and natural-gas fields. “You’ve got the need, we’ve got the seed” is the slogan on the message of employee Matt Brinson’s voice mail.
“We revegetate oil field sites in Pennsylvania,” explains Bowling. “We go from site to site. They vary from 2 to 20 acres in size.” He notes that in Pennsylvania, hydroseeding is required after mining, pipe laying, or any other excavation work.
B&B is working in northeast Pennsylvania, in Bradford and Sullivan Counties. For this hydroseeding, the company relies on Profile Products’ Flexterra. “What I like about Flexterra is that I know that it’s not going away,” says Bowling. “It’s supposed to stay there, and it does. It will hold everything. It can withstand a 5-inch rain in an hour. It’s expensive, but it’s the best stuff out there.”
Bowling says the most challenging parts of the Marcellus shale project have been operating 1,400 miles from home and dealing with the rain and subsequent flooding that shut down the operation for several months.
He and Steve Brinson “are considered landscapers. We started hydroseeeding in ’07. We started with a little machine on a gooseneck trailer. When we bought it, it sat for three months and we wondered if we’d get our money back.”
Fortunately, business picked up. “Once the work started, it was bang, bang, bang, and we grew and grew,” he says. “At this time, we have a dozen hands working in Pennsylvania, and we’ve got half a dozen here in Oklahoma.”
These erosion control projects in various states, with challenging site and weather conditions, prove how diverse the work of hydroseeding is. As Barry Cook of Sunmark says, “There is never a single appropriate way to do erosion control or revegetation.”
