Growing up, my dad taught me to spread limestone and fertilizer, and in the summer, we spread rock on oil and chip roads. We also spread rock in farm lanes and inside of farm storage buildings. Contrary to popular belief, hard work will not kill you!
Rodger Ferguson, Founder and CEO, Containment Drainage Erosion
After spending 25 years in the specialized area of liquid storage for the petrochemical industry and 30-plus years spreading rock, I sold my company, Industrial Surfacing, in 2010 and retired. At the time, my wife of 38 years was suffering from cancer, and I was glad to have the time to care for her during her last years. She was a good wife, and we loved each other.
After she died in 2013, I was very lonely. One of my daughters suggested I date again and signed me up for online dating. Sometime later I met a wonderful lady, fell in love again and remarried. After a few years, my wife said I had planted enough flowers and sufficiently painted and reorganized our home, so she and two of my daughters suggested I return to work. The purchaser of Industrial Surfacing had gone out of business, so I began to consider starting a new company. Three of my former employees - Ann Lookingbill, Marty Couture and Matthew "Tony" McMullen - wanted to go back into business with me. With their help and support, reentry into the field was an easy decision.
I had missed the challenges of solving problems and preventing containment, drainage and erosion issues for customers. Therefore, I named my new company Containment Drainage Erosion (CDE). CDE is different from typical contractors that use temporary patching when doing this type of work, because we do permanent repairs.
Expertise you can trust
One reason I originally decided to go into business was watching a parking lot being created in the typical way, where rock was dumped and bladed into place. This looked fine for about two days, but then it began to degenerate. I knew our method of applying rock would last far longer. So, I started spreading rock for residential drives, electrical substations, terminals and petrochemical plants. After doing this with a one-year guarantee for several years, the company extended our guarantee to five years.
I find it very gratifying when I visit past customers and they tell me our work still looks perfect after 10 or 20-plus years. The majority of our work continues to last over 30 years.
We do work well that most companies do not. I recently saw one of my former customers who is now retired. He told me that we saved his employees a lot of time and energy, and 24 years later, our work still holds up. Recently, the CDE team repaired a contractor's mistake on a berm in Sorrento, Louisiana, both within budget and on time. At a different erosion site, the workers were astounded that we fixed their problem in 4-5 days after they had worked overtime on it for over a year on Saturdays -- the erosion was still winning, despite all their work.
On a project in Grand Isle, Louisiana, we completed over 6,000 linear feet of berm. During a hurricane, there was a nearly 10-foot storm surge. Out of the whole berm, only 100 feet came out of compliance, which is less than 1.5 percent.
CDE serves the lower 48 states with concentrations in Louisiana and Texas. We have offices in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Beaumont, Texas; and Urbana, Illinois. CDE is well-experienced in design and building, saving our customers money in the current year and for years to come. Our process features a way to spread and apply rock without particle-size separation. This makes a major difference in how long rock stays in place. Rock applied via our method interlocks more securely and resists erosion, giving customers longer-lasting solutions to their problem areas. Our first terminal project is still in near-perfect condition after 31 years.
The team at CDE has worked for over 30 years without a lost-time injury. Our employees are motivated to take pride in their work and our projects, work safely and watch out for one another to function as a team.
I look forward to hearing from you about how we can solve your problems with containment, drainage and erosion.
For more information, visit www.containmentdrainageerosion.com or call (217) 356-6093.
