How Drones Can Benefit Evaporation Ponds: Liner and Level Checks

How can drones for evaporation ponds help with liner and level checks?

Drones for evaporation ponds give the crew an aerial view of the whole pond before anyone walks out to it. On a brine pond, the two jobs that matter most are checking the liner for damage and watching how the water level moves. A drone can shorten that work by showing where problems are most likely to be, so walkers spend their time on the spots that need them.

The drone does not replace the inspection. It gives the people doing the inspection imagery to decide which stretch of berm needs a close look, which slope needs attention, and which spot needs a repair team. Ground time stays focused on what the pictures suggest, and the rest of the perimeter is covered from the air.

We are a commercial robot integrator. We pick the drone that fits the site, lease it through financing, deploy and integrate it, train your staff, and service it nationwide. The lease quoted after a free site assessment is where we measure the ponds and walk routes, and the fixed robot lease payment is built from those measurements.

Why are liner and level checks slow at these ponds today?

A brine pond is large, lined and often built into the ground, so the liner is hard to see in full from the top. According to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, brine pond inspections include walking the liner at the top of the berm and near the brine level, and the annual inspection is done when the pond is at its lowest level. That timing means the crew has to cover the full perimeter at a water level that may not be convenient.

Damage does not always sit where you would expect. According to a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission record for a commercial uranium operation, eight small holes were found above the water line during a weekly inspection in 2004. The same record describes a pond where brine was pumped out to lower the level for liner inspection and repair, with the transfer beginning June 9, 2016. The dry berm and inside slope need attention as well as the wet liner.

Freeboard adds another check. According to an NRC licensing requirement for uranium solar evaporation ponds, each pond shall have at least 1.5 meters (5 feet) of freeboard. Tracking the gap between the brine and the berm crest is repetitive work, and it is easy to skip when the crew is busy with other jobs.

What are the main benefits of using drones here?

The biggest benefit is a faster first look. A drone can cover the perimeter, berm crest and inside slope on a set route, and the crew can compare the new images with earlier flights taken the same way. Change is easier to see in a sequence of matching pictures than in one walk taken from memory.

The benefits tend to show up in four places.

• Targeted walks: ground time goes to the spots the imagery flags, not the whole perimeter by default.
• Repeat records: the same route flown at the same height gives a comparable history for the liner and berm.
• Hard-to-reach slopes: the inside slope and waterline can be seen without a long walk along the edge.
• Thermal checks: a 2021 study on pit heat storage lids found drone thermal imaging located liner leaks under insulated lids, and it reports a full lid mapped in about 20 minutes. A 2024 levee study found infrared imaging located seepage more clearly at night than visible light. Both settings differ from a brine pond, so test the method before relying on it.

How does a drone work on a pond day to day?

A typical day starts before the crew arrives. The drone is checked, the route is set around the berm and along the inside slope, and the flight height is chosen for the sensor being used. According to a 2024 levee study, flight altitude significantly affects detection accuracy, so the height belongs in the plan rather than being left to default.

After the flight, the imagery goes to the people who run the pond. They compare it with the last flight, mark spots that look wet, dark, eroded or out of line, and send a walk crew to those points. Each flight leaves a dated record of the route, which becomes part of the inspection file.

Level checks follow the same pattern. Repeated flights at the same height and position give a consistent view of the brine line against the berm. Where the picture is unclear, the crew measures on the ground and records the reading next to the image.

Lowest-level timing helps. The Kansas program already times its annual inspection for the lowest pond level, so a drone route flown at that same level gives a like-for-like record of the berm and the exposed slope.

Which areas of the pond does the drone cover?

A drone works best on the parts of the site that can be seen from above. On most brine ponds, that means the berm crest and access roads, the inside slope above the brine, the waterline, the inlet and discharge points, and the outer drainage and fence lines.

The submerged liner is harder. One vendor product listing describes a drone that surveys submerged geomembranes in operating reservoirs without draining them. That is a vendor claim that has not been independently validated, so test it on your own pond before depending on it.

How does the drone fit alongside existing staff?

The drone works alongside the crew. Pond operators, environmental technicians and maintenance staff still do the inspections, decide on repairs and sign off on the records. The drone changes where those people spend their time, not whether they are needed.

The people doing this kind of work are not numerous. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 40,400 jobs were held by environmental science and protection technicians nationally in 2024, and employment is projected to grow 4 percent from 2024 to 2034, about as fast as average. With a workforce of that size, each hour a technician spends on the berm is worth protecting.

We train your staff on the flight routine, the imagery review and what to do when the drone flags something. The goal is a crew that trusts the pictures and knows which spots still need a walk.

What drives the savings?

Savings come from fewer blind walks, less time on the berm and slope, and fewer trips to recheck spots that were already clear. The size of any saving depends on the length of the perimeter, how often the pond is walked, and how many flagged spots need ground follow-up.

This page does not give an hour range. The research did not find a verified figure for pond walk time, so the best starting point is your own walk log. A site assessment measures the pond, the route length and the walk schedule, and the quote works from those measurements.

Savings are never guaranteed. A flight still takes crew time to set up and review, and a flagged spot still needs a person on the ground.

What can a drone not do?

A drone cannot see through brine or inspect the submerged liner on its own. Surface imagery shows wet spots, erosion and surface change, but it does not replace a hands-on inspection or a repair. In one brine pond liner replacement case study, electrical surveys on the surface were used to locate geomembrane damage before commissioning, a method imagery alone does not provide.

Weather and wind limit flights, and sensor accuracy depends on height, light and calibration. Published tests on exposed or covered pond liners are scarce, so first flights should be checked against known points on the ground.

A drone does not repair a liner, make a regulatory call or decide that a pond is safe. Those decisions stay with the people responsible for the site.

How do you get started?

Start with a free site assessment. We visit the site, measure the ponds, the berm and the walk routes, and talk through what your crew checks now. From that, we choose the drone that suits the site and set the flight routes.

The drone is leased through financing, and we deploy and integrate it, train the crew and service it nationwide. The lease quoted after the site assessment includes the fixed robot lease payment, so you can compare it with your current walk schedule.

One sensible way to begin is one drone on one pond as a pilot program before adding more. We help set the route, the flight height and the review steps, so the first season shows what your pond needs.