CLEVELAND – The 2018 Sherwin-Williams Impact Award, which recognizes outstanding water and wastewater projects, goes to a 3-million-gallon water storage tank restoration project performed under difficult conditions. Crewmembers from HCI Industrial & Marine Coatings Inc., Vancouver, Washington, had to battle smoke from the nearby Eagle Creek fire and prevent that smoke from absorbing into the interior tank coating and affecting the taste of water stored in the tank. For their efforts, HCI, the city of The Dalles, Oregon, and engineering services provider CH2M Inc. (locally based in Corvallis, Oregon) earned the 2018 Sherwin-Williams Impact Award. The award recognizes notable projects featuring coating and lining materials from Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine Coatings. The company announced the winners during a ceremony at the Water Environment Federation’s Annual WEFTEC Conference on Oct. 2, 2018, in New Orleans, Louisiana.

“We established the Sherwin-Williams Impact Award to honor demanding water and wastewater projects and recognize those professionals committed to enhancing public safety, protecting assets and extending infrastructure life,” said Kevin Morris, Market Segment Director, Water & Wastewater, Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine Coatings. “The winning project faced unique challenges that none of the parties involved had ever encountered. We all worked together to devise a plan that would ensure adhesion of the water tank’s coating systems and prevent smoke from adversely impacting the community’s water quality.”

Located about 70 miles west of the storage tank site, the 2017 Eagle Creek fire burned more than 50,000 acres over three months and resulted in additional challenges for the project team. Smoke was prone to being sucked into the cut-out access entry for the tank, presenting air quality concerns during work, as well as potential contamination to the lining. Using monitoring data, the HCI crew avoided applying coatings during hours in which particulate matter (PM) readings were above established thresholds. In addition, the team had to conduct wipe tests after each coat cured, using clean white cloths to check for PM before applying the subsequent coat. If a test showed evidence of smoke deposits, the crew had to clean the surface before applying the next coat.

To restore the tank’s interior, HCI crewmembers first set up an air filtering system to minimize as much smoke inside the tank as possible. Next, they prepared the entire tank interior surface before spray-applying multiple layers of Sherwin-Williams Macropoxy^® 5500LT, a high-solids, polyamidoamine epoxy tank lining developed for potable water storage tanks. The layers included a prime coat, a stripe coat on all weld seams to ensure a higher film build, an intermediate coat, and a topcoat.

HCI also followed the PM guidelines to ensure strong adhesion of the exterior coating system, which included applying a direct-to-metal prime coat and an intermediate coat of Sherwin-Williams Pro Industrial™ Pro-Cryl^® Universal Acrylic Primer. For the topcoat, the crew applied one to two coats of Sher-Cryl™ HPA, a high-performance acrylic semi-gloss coating from Sherwin-Williams, with the second coat applied selectively to sharp edges for a higher film build.

“Through careful planning, attention to detail, and open communication, HCI was able to complete a successful tank restoration for the city of The Dalles,” said Morris. “The entire team faced the impact of smoke from a destructive wildfire to ultimately arrive at a restored water tank that will store uncontaminated water for the city for years to come.”

The co-runner-up projects for the 2018 Impact Award include protective concrete coating applications performed at a 25-million-gallon-per-day secondary treatment plant and an intermediate overcoat solution for an elevated water tank.

First, Santa Fe Springs, California-based Cor-Ray Painting Co. completed extensive concrete coatings applications for the expansion of the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant (SBIWTP) in San Diego, California. Global engineering, procurement, construction and consulting company Black & Veatch served as construction manager and coatings inspector for the project. The Cor-Ray Painting crew applied Sherwin-Williams Steel-Seam FT910 Epoxy Patching and Surfacing Compound to fill large voids in the concrete surfaces. Crewmembers then spray-applied Corobond™ 100 Epoxy Primer/Sealer from Sherwin-Williams, followed by two coats of Dura-Plate^® 6100 High Performance Epoxy, before sealing all joint surfaces using an elastomeric joint sealant.

The second co-runner-up project is the intermediate restoration of a dilapidated one-million-gallon elevated water storage tank in Houma, Louisiana. Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Waterworks District No. 1 and Sherwin-Williams devised a plan to use an overcoat system that would revive the rusted appearance of the tank and extend the life of the existing coating system until the utility is able to fully restore the tank. A three-man, in-house maintenance crew completed the project efficiently and cost-effectively, applying Macropoxy 646 Fast Cure Epoxy, Macropoxy 920 Pre-Prime, and two gloss white coats of Pro Industrial DTM Acrylic using an airless pump with a custom power roller assembly.

Taking home an honorable mention in this year’s competition is a project involving extensive repairs and restorations performed on a 7.5-million-gallon water storage tank and two water treatment plant clarifiers for the Benton/Washington Regional Public Water Authority (BWRPWA). Glenpool, Oklahoma-based Kimery Painting Inc. (KPI) handled the rehabilitations with Little Rock, Arkansas-based Crist Engineers Inc. serving as the project engineering firm. For the water tank interior, KPI crewmembers spray-applied a hold primer and stripe coat, before spraying a topcoat of high-build SherPlate^® PW Epoxy coating to ensure a long-lasting lining system. For the tank’s exterior, the crew applied a three-coat system using a primer, intermediate coat of Macropoxy 646 Fast Cure Epoxy, and a topcoat of Hi-Solids Polyurethane MR. To address the two clarifiers, the KPI crew restored steel surfaces and then applied two coats of Macropoxy 646.

The Sherwin-Williams Impact Award program recognizes application contractors, specifiers, and owners for excellence on North American water and wastewater projects that influence public safety, asset protection and infrastructure lifecycle improvement. Eligible projects included any water-related structure that was new, restore and/or rehabilitated in 2017 and was completed using coating and lining materials from Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine Coatings.