Owing to their daily need for large quantities of water to keep playing surfaces green, golf courses are sizeable consumers of recycled water. Water reuse is more widespread where the high cost or low availability of potable water discourages its use for irrigation, for example in Mediterranean Europe, Florida, Hawaii, and Australia. Nevertheless water recycling schemes for golf course irrigation are being run successfully in more temperate areas such as the UK.
Florida, USA
In Florida 2282 million gallons of water are reused each day and a recent study (1) has shown that 427 golf courses (nearly 30% of golf courses in the state) are using recycled water for irrigation. The average volume of water used on each golf course is 0.98 million litres per day (ml/d) although this varies seasonally depending on rainfall and the water requirements of the turf grasses.
13 of the 427 golf courses are located within the Loxahatchee Environmental Control District in Palm Beach County, Florida and are supplied with I.Q (Irrigation Quality) recycled water. The I.Q. program began in 1984 and now supplies an average of 21ml/d of irrigation water to the local golf courses and Abacoa housing development in Jupiter. The quantity of water supplied to the golf courses is enough to fully meet their irrigation needs except in the very driest of conditions when they will supplement it with the limited groundwater supplies. Although cheaper, groundwater cannot be abstracted for irrigation in this area since it is reserved for the local population's potable water supply.
The financial incentives for switching to recycled water are clear in this part of Florida. The cost of potable water is US$0.45 per thousand litres whereas the cost of the I.Q water is less than a sixth of the price at US$0.07 per thousand litres (2) !
Belfry Golf Course, England
The De Vere Belfry in Warwickshire is home to three championship standard golf courses and a luxury hotel. Wastewater from the hotel complex is piped to the on site treatment plant. From there it is stored in irrigation storage lakes which have the capacity to store 94million litres of water ready for use as irrigation water (3). The average flow is 9100 gallons/hour passing through the system (3). The capacity of this recycling system is enough to supply all the irrigation water needs of the golf courses.
References
(2) Richard Dent, Loxahatchee River Environmnetal Control District (2005) Pers comm.
(3) Bevan Tattershall, Golf Courses and Estates Manager, The De Vere Belfry (2005) Pers comm.
