Lagoon Liner Damage, probably Turtles

[jrmsa]

Has anyone ever encountered the lagoon liner being damaged/eaten by animals, namely turtles? If so, please offer some advice/help on how to combat it.
Seems to be happening on the side facing the sun the most, and only where the liner has a "ripple" in it. It's occurring at the water line. Unknown if it is taking place below the water line.

Thanks,

 

[FWilson]

What is the liner type?

 

[jrmsa]

The liner is a reinforced polypropylene/rubber-based geomembrane that is produced with a 9x9 polyester weft inserted scrim reinforcement. It's 1.14 mm thick, and manufactured by Firestone.

 

[FWilson]

It is very rare that animals consider plastics/rubbers a food source. We have seen instances where animals would burrow through a liner to get to something on the other side. Are the turtles trying to go up the slope? Is it very steep?

If the fold or ripple are seems to be the concern, if you can straighten that area by opening the anchor trench and tightening it, try that. There should be no reason for animals to want to eat the liner.

 

[jrmsa]

Yes, I agree. I don't think they are doing it as a source of food. It seems that they are trying to get behind it, probably because it's warm. Started happening in the winter. To decrease the fold or ripple is a good idea, and one we suggested on the next project, but to eliminate is near impossible, as the liner expands and contracts, there will inevitably be ripples that form. These are two neighboring communities, one has had the liner for a year and began having issues in the first winter they had it, the other one is in the middle of construction. So they are concerned with the news they have gotten from the first community.

 

[cvg]

I would get Firestone involved trying to find a solution. It should be under warranty if it happened in the first year.

 

[jrmsa]

We have contacted them and the warranty doesn't cover this sort of thing. They also had no suggestion for a solution as they had "never heard of this before." They provided the city with a patch kit at the cities expense to patch it themselves.

 

[cvg]

sounds like you need to contact an attorney, they are just blowing you off, hoping you will go away.

 

[jrmsa]

And as the city's consultant, we did suggest that they look further into that, and left in their hands to pursue as far as they felt comfortable. Being a city of 500 people, I don't think they pursued it. Thanks for the tips cvg and Fwilson.