Frequently asked questions

EC Applications works from three offices: our headquarters at 901 East Orangethorpe Avenue in Anaheim, California, plus regional offices in Midland, Texas and Sparks, Nevada. Our crews install across the western United States and nationwide, coast to coast, and our field teams represent hundreds of years of installation work collectively.

We hold two California CSLB licenses, #894068 and #1003207. For projects outside California, contact our Anaheim office and we will confirm licensing and mobilization details for your state and site.

Yes. While our offices are in Anaheim, Midland, and Sparks, we install nationwide. Our completed work includes projects as far afield as Hawaii, where we installed a 600,000 SF biogas cover and methane barrier and a fuel storage secondary containment system for Hawaiian Electric Company.

Yes. On the Friant-Kern Canal near Visalia, California, EC Applications installed 160,000 square feet of 45 mil reinforced polypropylene liner on federal water infrastructure operated by the Friant Water Authority under the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Canal lining work carries its own demands: staged construction around water deliveries, strict schedule windows, and agency-level quality documentation, all of which our crews are practiced in.

We install smooth and textured HDPE and LLDPE, reinforced polypropylene (RPP), PVC, XR geomembranes, spray-applied liquid boot, geosynthetic clay liners (GCL), geotextiles, GeoNet, and geocomposites. Material selection depends on chemical exposure, UV conditions, subgrade movement, and whether the panel will be prefabricated or field welded, and we help clients choose the right material for each site.

Yes. Panels are custom-fabricated in-house up to 25,000 SF or 4,000 lbs per panel, which means fewer field seams and faster installation on site. We also stock off-the-shelf liner inventory for rapid deployment when project schedules demand it, along with custom fabrication of portable containment systems, fuel bladders, geotubes, and environmental barriers.

Yes. We supply and install InsulFoam GF (EPS Geofoam), a rigid closed-cell expanded polystyrene block manufactured to ASTM D6817. Geofoam is an engineered alternative to soil fill for embankments, bridge approaches, and retaining walls, solving settlement and bearing problems on highway, railway, airport, and civil projects.

We partner with Agru America and TPH Waterproofing Systems, most visibly on tunnel lining work where we install using an induction welding system. Partnering directly with manufacturers keeps our crews current on material specifications and approved installation methods.

Shop fabrication turns geosynthetic sheet into finished products before anything reaches the field: prefabricated liner panels, fuel and water bladders, geotubes, portable containment berms, oil booms, turbidity barriers, and baffle curtain assemblies. Building these in controlled shop conditions means tested factory seams, exact dimensions, and fast field deployment. EC Applications runs this fabrication in-house rather than subcontracting it.

HDPE and LLDPE weld with the same equipment and cost in the same neighborhood; the split is crystallinity. HDPE trades flexibility for chemical resistance and stiffness, making it the default for landfills, ponds, and aggressive service. LLDPE gives up some of that resistance for far better flexibility and elongation, which pays off over soft or settlement-prone subgrades where a stiffer sheet would bridge and stress. Site conditions, not habit, should pick the winner.

HDPE brings broad chemical resistance and a long exposed-service record, which is why it dominates open containments. Reinforced polypropylene (RPP) brings flexibility and light weight from its internal scrim, making large prefabricated panels practical and making it a leading choice for floating covers and liners over irregular or moving substrates. Both of ECA's flagship reservoir and canal projects used 45 mil reinforced polypropylene for exactly those reasons.

HDPE is the commodity workhorse; XR-5 is a premium reinforced ethylene interpolymer alloy fabric. HDPE wins big open containments on material economics and broad chemical resistance. XR-5 wins where fuels, oils, and elevated temperatures are in the design basis, and where high tensile strength at low thickness lets a prefabricated panel do the work. Fuel storage and secondary containment service is where the XR-5 conversation usually starts.

A geosynthetic clay liner delivers lower permeability than a compacted clay liner from a material a fraction of the thickness, installs in days instead of weeks, and ships on trucks instead of requiring a borrow pit. Compacted clay depends entirely on local soil quality and moisture-conditioned placement, and it cannot be tested the way manufactured materials can. Where a project has good clay on site and loose schedule, clay can pencil; everywhere else the GCL usually wins.

Increasingly, yes. Geomembranes, GCLs, and compacted clay all serve as low-permeability barriers, but they differ by orders of magnitude in permeability, and modern regulations often require a composite: geomembrane over a clay or GCL layer, each covering the other's failure modes. The geomembrane stops bulk flow and is seam-testable; the clay layer slows anything that gets through a defect. For permitted facilities, the composite question is usually settled by the regulation, not preference.

EPS geofoam weighs roughly one percent of what compacted soil fill weighs, and that single number drives the whole comparison. On soft ground, replacing soil with geofoam removes most of the load that causes settlement, which is why it shows up under bridge approaches, over utilities, and behind retaining walls where soil surcharge would be a problem. Where ground is competent and load is not the issue, soil fill stays cheaper. The comparison is structural, not cosmetic.

Landfill liners are engineered geomembrane systems that keep leachate and waste out of groundwater and soil. EC Applications installs single-lined and composite-lined cells, closure caps, leachate ponds, and leachate channels across municipal solid waste, hazardous, coal ash, and canyon fill facilities. Landfill work is specification-heavy and CQA-intensive by design, and it is one of our core markets.

A heap leach pad liner is the engineered geomembrane system that contains process solution under a heap leach operation, protecting groundwater while routing metal-bearing solution to recovery. The liner is not just an environmental control; it is part of the recovery circuit, since solution that escapes is metal that never reaches the plant. EC Applications installs heap leach pads along with the ponds and channels around them.

Heap leach service combines high normal loads from ore stacking, aggressive process chemistry, and long design lives, which pushes selection toward heavy-gauge HDPE and LLDPE, often textured for interface shear strength on slopes, frequently over a GCL or prepared soil layer as a composite. Ore height and subgrade drive the gauge; interface stability drives the texturing decision. Our materials guide for heap leach covers the trade-offs in detail.

Yes. Mining containment beyond the leach pad, tailings storage, evaporation ponds, and process water ponds, is standard work for our crews. These facilities carry the same groundwater protection duty as the pad with their own design wrinkles: large areas, wave action on long fetch, and chemistry that changes over the facility's life. Material selection and seaming quality carry the performance, which is where an experienced installer earns the fee.

A closure cap is the geomembrane system installed over a filled landfill cell to keep rainwater out of the waste and gas under control. Less water in means less leachate to manage forever after. Cap work is slope work: texture and interface shear govern the design, and placement sequencing matters because the cap is built on top of settling waste. EC Applications installs closure caps as part of our landfill service line.

Coal ash impoundments and landfills are regulated for exactly the failure the liner prevents: constituents leaching into groundwater. A welded, seam-tested geomembrane provides the demonstrable barrier the compliance record needs, and composite systems add redundancy where required. EC Applications installs coal ash containment as part of our landfill market, alongside MSW, hazardous, and canyon fill facilities.

A water reservoir liner is a flexible geomembrane installed inside a concrete reservoir, steel tank, clearwell, or earthen basin to stop seepage and protect stored water from contamination. The liner turns an aging structure back into a tight one without rebuilding it, which is usually the point: lining an existing reservoir costs a fraction of replacing it. EC Applications installs reservoir liners across municipal and potable water systems.

Yes, and it is often the best answer for an aging concrete structure. At the City of Wenatchee's Jefferson Reservoir, EC Applications installed 50,000 square feet of 45 mil reinforced polypropylene bottom liner inside an 8 million gallon concrete reservoir, including confined-space batten-bar attachment work. The liner seals the cracks and joints concrete accumulates with age, at a fraction of structural replacement cost.

Yes. A floating cover on a potable reservoir keeps birds, debris, sunlight, and airborne contamination off the treated water while controlling evaporation. At the El Dorado Irrigation District, EC Applications replaced both the base liner and the floating cover on a potable water reservoir just under two acres. Potable service raises the bar on materials and details, and cover replacement on a live water system takes careful sequencing, both routine for our crews.

A wastewater lagoon liner is a geomembrane barrier, typically HDPE, LLDPE, reinforced polypropylene, or an XR geomembrane, installed across the floor and slopes of a lagoon to stop wastewater from seeping into soil and groundwater. Municipal and industrial lagoons carry permit-driven seepage limits, and a welded, tested geomembrane is how those limits get met and proven. EC Applications lines new lagoons and relines existing ones, including remediation work.

Gas uplift, the industry calls them whales: gas or water accumulating under the liner lifts it off the subgrade in domes. Causes range from organic decomposition under the liner to groundwater rise to leaks feeding the space beneath. A whale is a symptom, not the disease, and the fix depends on diagnosis: venting, ballast, leak repair, or subgrade correction. Left alone, uplift stresses seams and accelerates failure. Our crews diagnose and repair gas uplift on operating lagoons.

Baffle curtains are custom-fabricated geomembrane barriers that control flow and circulation in tanks, reservoirs, and wastewater treatment ponds. By forcing water along a longer path, they eliminate short-circuiting and increase effective detention time, which is often the cheapest capacity and compliance upgrade a treatment facility can buy. EC Applications fabricates and installs both floating and fixed baffle systems, including retrofits that require no dewatering.

Yes. Canal lining stops the seepage losses that earthen and aging concrete canals accumulate, and it is exacting work: long narrow geometry, staged construction around water delivery schedules, and agency-level documentation. Our Friant-Kern Canal project placed 160,000 square feet of 45 mil reinforced polypropylene on federal water infrastructure in California's Central Valley, supporting one of the West's most significant canal rehabilitation programs.

Oil and gas containment liners are geomembrane systems that keep frac water, drilling mud, and produced water contained on site, protecting soil and groundwater while giving operators reliable fluid storage through drilling and production. From our Midland office in the Permian Basin, EC Applications lines frac pits, produced water pits, and drilling containments on operator schedules, which usually means fast.

Produced water is the hard case: high salinity, hydrocarbons, and chemistry that varies by formation, all sitting in a pit expected to hold for years. The questions that matter are material compatibility with your actual water analysis, gauge for the service life, subgrade and gas venting design, and the QA record your regulator will want. Our produced water guides walk through the questions operators ask most, and our Permian crews handle the work daily.

A secondary containment liner is an impervious geomembrane barrier installed around tanks and fuel storage to capture leaks and spills before they reach soil or groundwater. The primary tank can fail; the containment cannot. EC Applications designs, installs, and maintains secondary containment from single-tank ring walls to multi-cell tank farm systems, including the Hawaiian Electric fuel storage containment covering walls, floor, and tank ring wall.

The federal SPCC rule (40 CFR Part 112) requires facilities with more than 1,320 gallons of aboveground oil storage to provide secondary containment that is sufficiently impervious to hold a discharge until it is cleaned up. Earthen berms alone often fail that test; a geomembrane-lined berm provides the demonstrably impervious barrier the rule contemplates. EC Applications builds SPCC containment for tank farms, fuel systems, and electrical substations.

Often, yes. Transformers and oil-filled equipment at substations hold enough oil to fall under the SPCC rule, the same as tank farms, and both need containment that performs at facility scale: multi-cell lined berms around storage tanks, and lined pits and berms around transformers. EC Applications installs both, working around energized equipment schedules and utility clearance requirements.

A drop-in berm liner is a one-piece geomembrane liner fabricated in the shop to the exact dimensions of a containment berm, dike, or vault, then delivered to the site, placed, and attached with minimal field welding. Because the seams are factory-made and factory-tested, field time drops from days to hours, which matters inside operating facilities. EC Applications fabricates drop-in liners in-house and installs them across fuel, chemical, and utility containments.

A methane barrier is a gas-impermeable membrane system installed under slabs and against below-grade walls to keep methane gas out of living and work spaces. Buildings over former landfills, oil fields, and gas-prone soils are required to install them in many jurisdictions. EC Applications installs under slab methane barriers for commercial and residential buildings in HDPE/LLDPE, PVC, spray-applied liquid boot, and composite absolute barrier materials.

A passive system relies on the barrier membrane plus vent layers that let gas escape safely without mechanical help. An active system adds powered extraction, fans pulling gas from under the slab, for sites where gas generation or pressure is too high for passive venting alone. The site's gas investigation drives the choice, and many jurisdictions prescribe the system level by measured gas concentration. We install both configurations.

Tunnel waterproofing places a flexible geomembrane lining between the excavated ground and the tunnel's final structure so groundwater never reaches the concrete. EC Applications supplies and installs tunnel lining systems in partnership with Agru America and TPH Waterproofing Systems, using an induction welding system to attach the membrane. It is overhead, confined, sequence-critical work, and it is a distinct specialty within our transportation infrastructure market.

Yes. Geosynthetic erosion control uses engineered materials, turf reinforcement mats, erosion control blankets, geotextiles, and geocomposites, to hold soil in place on slopes, channels, and embankments until vegetation establishes or permanently where vegetation cannot. It pairs naturally with our containment work, since lined facilities almost always have engineered slopes around them that need the same protection.

Liner repair is the diagnosis and welded correction of damage in an existing liner: punctures, tears, failed seams, degraded boots, and loose terminations. Repair is worth it when the membrane around the damage still has service life; it stops being worth it when age-related brittleness means new failures will keep appearing. EC Applications repairs liners in ponds, lagoons, reservoirs, and containments regardless of who installed them, and the inspection tells you honestly which case you have.

Our crews are the most experienced in the industry and consistently deliver high quality installations with unparalleled customer service. Field seams are tested to the project specification before handoff, and on methane barrier work every seam is vacuum and smoke tested for a leak-proof system. That verification step is how we deliver containment that performs for the life of the facility.

Yes. Our under slab methane barrier installations for commercial and residential buildings are built to LADBS compliance, and every installation is certified through Deputy Inspector coordination. We install methane barriers in HDPE/LLDPE, PVC, spray-applied liquid boot, and composite absolute barrier materials.

Yes. We maintain floating cover systems, install baffle curtain retrofits that require no dewatering, and take on wastewater containment remediation as well as new construction. If an existing liner, cover, or containment system needs inspection, repair, or replacement, our crews handle it as a single design-to-construction-to-maintenance service.

Verify eight things before you award. Welding qualification at the technician level for the named crew on your project, not company-level marketing. Construction quality assurance performed by a firm the owner or design engineer retains, never the installer. A settled material specification before bids go out, so the numbers are comparable. Reference projects matching your application and your regulatory driver, not just total square footage. Subgrade preparation and acceptance responsibility defined in writing. Separate material and workmanship warranties with exclusions stated. Insurance including pollution liability. Contractor licensing valid in the project state, confirmed before mobilization.

Nondestructive testing covers 100 percent of field seams: air pressure testing of dual-track fusion seams per ASTM D5820, vacuum box testing of extrusion welds and repairs per ASTM D5641, and air channel testing of PVC per ASTM D7177. Destructive samples are cut at the frequency the project specification sets, commonly one per 500 linear feet of seam, and tested in shear and peel per ASTM D6392, where the film tear bond criterion requires the specimen to fail in the sheet rather than through the weld. Trial welds are run at the start of every shift and on any equipment or temperature change.

No. Construction quality assurance is oversight of the installer, so the CQA firm should be retained by the owner or the design engineer and should have the authority to stop deployment. Installer self-certification leaves the project without an independent record, and that independent record is what carries weight in a regulatory or insurance dispute later. Competent installers generally prefer independent CQA for the same reason.

The subgrade is the foundation the liner lives on: it must be smooth, compacted, free of rock and debris that could puncture the membrane, and accepted in writing before deployment starts. Responsibility is a contract question that should never be left implicit; the installer selection guide on this site lists it among the eight things to settle before award. When EC Applications accepts a subgrade, we document the acceptance so the record is clear.

Request a quote through our contact page or call our Anaheim headquarters at (714) 921-9848. Tell us about your site, the fluid or gas you need to contain, and your schedule, and we will scope the project with you, from material selection through fabrication, installation, and testing.