Many people only associate canals with the waterways in Venice that are traveled by gondola, but each year thousands of miles of new canals are installed for a wide variety of uses. Canals remain a modern technology, despite its ancient roots, and most uses for canals require lining that is best accomplished with geomembranes.
Irrigation
The primary use for canals today, especially the majority of new construction, is irrigation for agricultural and horticultural purposes. Thousands of acres of farms in the Western U.S. rely on irrigation canals to transfer water to them from remote rivers, lakes, and aquifers for proper field saturation during seasons in which little rain falls. For example, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation manages over 8,000 miles of irrigation canals to supply water to over 10 million acres of farmland. By moving water, using primarily gravity and only a limited number of pumps, farms can manage energy and water costs year-round. Irrigation canals perform best when lined with an impermeable or low-permeability material to prevent water from simply seeping through the raw soil and flooding nearby roads and fields. Irrigation canals are easier to maintain and more effective when lined with geomembranes.
Transportation
Some of the most famous major canals in the world, such as the Panama Canal, were designed to expand shipping and transportation options by cutting across dry land to connect existing bodies of water. Much fewer transportation canals are built today, but existing structures still require plenty of maintenance to keep the liner materials from leaking. These canals are primarily concrete lined, but geomembranes are essential as underlayment to add a secondary barrier against water seepage.
Storm Water Management
Canals are also essential for carrying away storm water and runoff from agricultural fields after irrigation. Drainage canals are often legally required to have some kind of impermeable lining since the water usually contains pollutants like paint, gasoline, pesticide, fertilizer, and other chemical residues. Unlined storm water management canals are easily updated with geomembranes.
Water Supply
Some communities still rely on open water canals for moving potable and non-potable supplies across long distances. When you’re relying on a canal for essential drinking water supplies, you certainly can’t afford to lose even 20% of the total supply to seepage. Even non-potable manufacturing or mining water canals still required water loss control to prevent supply costs from rising. These canals are almost always lined in some way during construction, but a geomembrane is a fast way to restore a damaged canal or one that has become difficult or costly to maintain.
Power Generation
Another common use for canals is increasing water velocity and head to generate hydroelectric power. Canals speed up the water and squeeze it into a tighter space to maximize the power generated by a specific amount of flow. Without canals, hydroelectric stations are much less efficient. All modern power generation canals are lined, many with geomembranes like BTL Liner’s ArmorPro as underlayment.
