Source: The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tenn.)
Mike Herrington, general manager at Plantation Golf Course, went white when he saw black in the lake that feeds the Olive Branch business's irrigation system.
The golf course was scheduled to be aerated and irrigated soon, but the water looked spoiled.
"If we put tainted water on our greens we lose our greens," Herrington, who fastidiously oversees the course's 200 acres, said Friday, a day after he discovered the black water. "If we put that bad water on our greens it's going to be a major catastrophe."
The black water came from the Metro Industrial Park's water or sewer system, which is separate from the city system, said Mike McDaniel, district manager for ECO Resources Inc.
An electrical braker failed, causing the lift station to malfunction and water to flow to the point of least resistance. That point was the golf course lake.
A broken sewer line further complicated the problem. It allowed the water to leave the industrial park's water or sewer system, said Don Sappington, city public works director.
Apparently no other bodies of water were affected.
ECO, which services the industrial park's system, took samples of the black water to determine whether it would be hazardous to living things like grass. The results of those samples will be available Monday.
ECO sent vacuum trucks out to the golf course to suck up at least some of the black water.
"We'll be monitoring that throughout the weekend," McDaniel said.
Herrington, who has dealt with problems from upstream water he says is from area development, made a report to the Department of Environmental Quality about the black water. It couldn't send a representative out Friday.
Herrington was planning to irrigate the golf course this coming week, getting it ready for spring. He's not sure what he'll do if the lake water isn't healthy enough to use.
"We don't have alternative sources of water. That's our water," Herrington said. "I don't know what to do."