The truth about water quality impacts by golf courses will get another look. The Golf Course Superintendents Association of America awarded a research grant to Environmental & Turf Services Inc. to critically review water quality monitoring results from golf courses across the United States. Funding for the project is being shared with the USGA Green Section. According to Katherine Sanders, project manager, the grant is for $50,000 over two years.
Golf courses have been historically perceived by many in the public as being significant sources of pesticide and fertilizer contamination of nearby surface and ground water. Therefore the impact of golf courses on water quality is an important issue during the permitting and operational phases of their development and management.
The first national assessment of this issue was supported by a GCSAA research grant in 1996 to ETS, an environmental consulting firm based in Wheaton, Md. ETS worked closely with the GCSAA to identify all available golf course water-quality monitoring studies. The results of monitoring for nitrates, pesticides and solvents were obtained from 36 golf courses participating in 17 studies. These results were subjected to quality control criteria and were then analyzed and published. It was determined that low frequencies of concentrations exceeded human health and aquatic organism standards and guidelines.
The original study was conducted nearly 10 years ago, and the database was limited in terms of numbers of golf courses and their geographic distribution. Thirty-six golf courses is a very small portion of the 15,600 in existence at that time.
Sanders is looking for greater involvement this time around by promoting the study.
“Hope to get that many or a lot more,” she says. “The way to get it out is through press releases and we sent letters to all regional EPA offices, GCSAA chapter heads and also the [USGA] regional agronomists.”
The data representation from the mid-continent area was significantly lacking as well. In the initial review, the study sites were located in 12 ground water regions and 10 surface water regions. In the United States, there are 55 possible combinations of climate zones and ground water regions, and 48 possible surface/runoff water and climate zone combinations. Thus broader representation is needed.
Many of the early water quality studies were done as a result of permit requirements and were still in early stages in 1996. Approximately 1,700 additional golf courses have been built since then, and many of these have initiated their own water quality monitoring studies. Therefore, there may be more valid and relevant data available at this time to yield meaningful results for the geographical areas that previously had limited input.
The GCSAA grant is part of the national research program within the Environmental Institute for Golf. One goal of this new study will be to use the water-quality monitoring data from a greater number of North American golf courses and from a much wider geographical distribution. Scientists at ETS will analyze the concentrations of nutrient and pesticide detections, identify when they exceed current environmental health standards and then use the analyses to identify trends. The results of this research will provide scientifically valid, updated information that can be used in public hearings, regulatory decisions on golf course permitting and pesticide registration. Equally important, it will help the industry better understand the extent to which, if any, it is impacting water quality. Potential contamination problems may be identified that indicate the need for improved or better informed turf management. It may be determined that certain costly analyses that rarely yield positive results should be excluded from monitoring programs, thereby providing money-saving advice. Trends may be identified that could be significant for national perspectives on the focus of water quality monitoring.
As for a timetable, Sanders says they are focusing on getting the word out now and will be better equipped to analyze the data once a significant amount starts to roll in. She stresses that the study is not using the names of courses … just the raw data.
“We’re not trying to condemn anybody,” she says.
Research
Superintendents who have conducted or are currently conducting a monitoring project of ground or surface water quality on your golf course are asked to contact Sanders or Stuart Cohen. Information is needed so that it can be included in the new golf course water quality study. Contact Stuart Cohen via e-mail ETSCohen@aol.com or phone at 301-933-4700 and Sanders via e-mail KSandersETS@aol.com or phone 806-777-1306.