Water, water everywhere... but here

Entrenched in the most severe drought in its history, California Governor Jerry Brown has mandated that water usage for golf courses must be cut 20 percent by the year 2020. When drought restrictions came into play in 2009, the request within the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) was to reduce water in that year by 15 percent. A collaborative task force was formed that consisted of local superintendents, local PGA Section, Southern California Golf Association, golf course operators and the USGA. Together, they hammered out a proactive plan to deal with the question of water availability for golf courses.

The initial restrictions would have allowed for watering two days per week. Additionally, it would restrict irrigation to 10 minutes per head. This was felt to be onerous and the group offered to reduce not only 15 percent, but 20 percent in that first year if the superintendents would be allowed to manage their water as they saw fit as long as the reduction was met. Within that first year, participating golf course facilities met their goals.

The bottom line is that any market or group of superintendents facing water regulations or drought restrictions need to actively engage their water providers and become an active part of developing a solution for water conservation.

The once common perception of golf courses as water wasters has evolved into a new image of golf courses and turf managers as wise water managers and users. It’s gratifying to see what happens when all parties have the same goals and work together to achieve them.

LADWP was the preliminary case study and it still is working quite well. Since then, other agencies and golf course superintendents in San Diego and the Coachella Valley Water District are working together toward similar collaborative task forces to develop responsible regulation.

This winter, scientists and meteorologists are calling for an El Niño, a band of warm ocean water temperatures that periodically develops off the Pacific coast of South America influencing weather patterns. However, it would take about three such years to replenish California’s water supply to normal levels.

Water is a commodity that, with predicted double-digit rate increases, is almost unaffordable. To survive, golf courses must look at turf reduction, smart irrigation systems, improved grasses that require less water and, most of all, better overall water management.

Water is not just an issue exclusive to the arid regions of the U.S. In fact, many areas are dealing with their own particular water challenges. It is highly likely that this trend will continue and I would strongly suggest that chapters take a strong look at the ground work completed by your colleagues in California, Georgia and Florida.
 

Out of the past

Almost two decades ago I ventured from my birthplace in the Midwest out to the great state of California. After spending 47 years of my life in Illinois, Ohio and Michigan, I was intrigued about what California would offer.

All of the golf courses I had worked at until that time had ample water, and if the irrigation system was decent, it was not a major concern. So here I go with a couple of decades with plenty of water, at an affordable cost, with a high quality level, not to mention a couple of dozen inches of natural rainfall and lots of snow in the winter.

I arrived in California in March of 1997 realizing it was a climate change from Chicago, but my new neighbors quickly informed me of a few concerns I might have making that transition:

• Water is not readily available
• Permits are issued if courses have effluent water
• Water is low in quality more often than not

So, at my first few gatherings with peers, the conversations seemed to turn to water. They would go something like this: “So how much sodium in your water? 15,00ppm... that’s nothing. I deal with 2,500 ppm on a daily basis. Yeah, and some days I have just enough stored water to irrigate greens and tees if I am flushing and other nights just enough to water a few fairways!”

It didn’t take long to figure out that water was the key to keeping grass alive and it would be a balancing act with affordability, availability and quality as long as I was a California superintendent.
 

Affordability

In 1997, it cost about $12,000 per year to irrigate an 18-hole golf course in Chicago. Plentiful rain, double- or triple-row irrigation (no rough), and water that was predominantly pumped from a canal that ran through the golf course, all contributed to this luxury of a resource that perhaps was taken for granted.

A rough estimate to maintain an 18-hole facility with average water usage in California would be between $400,000 and $600,000 depending on your water district.

Yes, those figures reflect potable water usage, but effluent and blended water is not much different in price. Now, if you split the difference between those two water cost figures ($500,000) and figure that the average round of golf is roughly $30, you’d need 16,667 rounds just to pay for water, not to mention surviving Southern California’s golf market.
 

Availability

Imagine having a straw in a bottomless glass. If you want more to drink, then you just draw on the straw. That’s the best analogy to explain what I experienced, along with about a dozen other golf courses, that were built in flood plain along the East Fork of the North Branch of the Chicago River. Lots of water flowing all the time and our only cost was electricity to pump that water.

At one point, we worked with the North Shore Sanitary District and established turf plots to see if the tertiary treated water would work well on bentgrass/Poa annua cut on test plots with USGA greens mix. The testing proved it would as long as we had rainfall and could flush the greens. Sadly, the cost to install a pipeline to deliver this water was around $1 million. It would have cost each course about $100,000 to get water to their course, but why would anyone want to spend that kind of money when your water bill was less than $12,000? Let’s just say hindsight is 20/20.

No permits are issued for California courses unless tertiary water is part of the plan. Many water districts are rationing water. So even if you can afford it, you may only be allowed a certain amount per week or per year.
 

Quality

Chicago’s water came from Lake Michigan. The quality was great in terms of pH, low bicarbonates and low sodium. Outside of rainfall, you couldn’t ask for any better water. Canal water was great in quality in the 1970s and as parking lots replaced farm fields there was a gradual reduction in quality and quantity to the point where water had to be purchased at Bob O’Link and other clubs. At times we tested the quality and learned when we could use water from the creek or had to use potable.

I remember reading about salt-impact greens at Medinah. How could that be with the great water they had in Chicago? Well, Chicago also has snow and they treat paved surfaces with salt... lots of it.

Things change over time, therefore superintendents must adapt to change. While availability, affordability and quality have been major water issues in California for some time, they are becoming issues in Chicago, Georgia, Florida, Texas and Arizona, as well.
 

Meeting basic needs

Over the last 40 years, the golf industry has seen monumental changes in grasses and their maintenance. Golf courses have been built in deserts, mountains, arid regions and just about anywhere you can imagine. Where we may have formerly seen sand greens we now see grass growing where it was never intended to be. Hats off to the greenkeepers who have learned how to make adaptions and perhaps really “fool Mother Nature.”

Without water this would not have been possible. We develop new grasses, new fertilizers, new irrigation systems and new equipment, but it still gets down to using water to provide quality playing conditions.

As an industry, let’s develop better water management practices. Let’s work with our water agencies to develop concepts to conserve. Let’s be true stewards of the environment and be a part of the water conservation solution rather than a part of the problem.

Bruce Williams, CGCS, is GCI’s senior contributing editor.