Water Use at Golf Courses in Florida The USGS reported that 281 mgd of freshwater was used for recreational purposes in 1995 in Florida (70% ground water, 30% surface water). Irrigation of all golf courses in Florida accounted for about 187 mgd of this freshwater use (about 67% of total recreational water use).
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Apr 11, 2016 · Golf courses in cooler climates and high rainfall can use less that 1 acre-foot of water per acre each year. (One acre-foot of water is the amount of water covering a one-acre area - roughly one football field - to a depth of one foot, which is equal to 325,851 gallons.) Golf courses in hot, dry climates may require as much as 6 acre-feet of water per acre per year.
The Southwest region had an estimated net decrease of 12 acres. From 2003-2005, the average water use for golf course irrigation in the U.S. was estimated to be 2,312,701 acrefeet per year. That equates to approximately 2.08 billion gallons of water per day for golf course irrigation in …
1995 in Florida (70% ground water, 30% surface water). Irrigation of all golf courses in Florida accounted for about 187 mgd of this freshwater use (about 67% of total recreational water use). This 187 mgd of freshwater use is in addition to the 110 mgd of reclaimed water used to irrigate 419 of Florida’s golf courses. Data contained in the USGS report suggest that an average golf …
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection is the state’s lead agency for environmental management and stewardship – protecting our air, water and land. The vision of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection is to create strong community partnerships, safeguard Florida’s natural resources and enhance its ecosystems.
These factors can be climate, type of turf grass, agronomic and soils conditions, regulations, and water av ailability.
Course size varies, but consider a course with 130 irrigated acres and you have a total water need around 21 million gallons.
Irrigation Needs. Each course will vary because of size of the irrigated area and management practices. Also, water use each year will vary depending on climatic conditions. The timing and amount of rainfall, temperatures each month, and sunshine. There is no fixed answer.
The level of surface quality and beauty is based on golfer expectations. For many courses those expectations have been allowed to decline somewhat in recent times. Their golfers understand costs and know golf courses are struggling in this economic environment. For higher end golf clubs expectations have remained stable or even increased in some cases!
Without an automated ET scheduling system, a superintendent will manually adjust irrigation run times to match perceived plant water use. Water can be saved but with much increased labor input.
If the year has more beneficial rain events, the irrigation water use declines drastically. This year (2011), several courses in northern Ohio saw irrigation water application drop to 30% or so of historical averages.
Our service area (Ohio and Kentucky) generally has enough water available and reasonable regulatory conditions. Challenges arise from site and soil conditions and wide variation in rainfall throughout the growing season.
If that sounds like a lot of water to drink, just think about all the positive effects drinking lots of water has on your body. It can help your brain function more effectively, it can speed up your metabolism so you’ll lose more weight, and it’ll keep you generally healthy in other ways which will lessen your risk for diseases down the road.
And keep in mind, that’s in a fairly standard climate. If you’re outdoors in hot weather — like on a golf course — you’ll need to drink even more water. And that’s not to mention whether you’re putting down any alcohol, which can dehydrate your system even further.
Water is one of the biggest costs to golf courses, and this is another reason why many have tried to save as much water as possible. Depending on the location of the golf course and the climate, an 18-hole course can use on average 2.08 billion gallons of water per day. Depending on the amount of water needed, a typical golf course can spend between $7,000 and $108,000 per year.
As well as trying to reduce pollution, rising temperatures have seen more demand on water supplies that has to be managed to ensure there is always fresh water available. Over the past few years, more countries have had to impose water restrictions and spend more money on their infrastructure to ensure no water is lost.
Many courses will have a lot of open grass areas that are not strictly part of the course. This grass also needs irrigation, but that increases the demand for water. To counteract this, some courses have removed the areas of grass that are not needed and replaced it with cacti can desert-loving plants. These need little irrigation, and they are also a good contrast to the green fairways and greens.
Many countries have now imposed water restrictions on all of the businesses and farms that use water and limited the amount they can use in a year. Golf courses have a two-fold use for water. The first and greatest use is on the maintained turfgrass.
However, research has been going on into alternatives that not only need less water but can also handle more salt. Poor quality water often has a higher salt content, which can be bad for the grasses. By increasing their tolerance, water from more sources can be used.
Along with this, they will often have other facilities such as clubhouses, conference facilities, and other areas that may also need to use water. The restrictions placed on golf courses has meant that they have had to implement strategies to monitor and save water where possible.
In addition, the Water Authority drought plan asked that golf courses stick to an annual water budget of 6.3 acre feet of water per acre. Since then, golf courses and their supporting industries have met the challenge. Sometimes stiff fines await them if they don’t.
The Water Authority has paid out more than $25 million to area golf courses to remove upwards of 1,000 acres of turfgrass, nearly 20% of all golf-course property in the area. This has conserved billions of gallons of water.
There aren’t even any cactus, just desert scrub like creosote, plus some cholla and Joshua trees. These contrasts clash on the Las Vegas area’s 56 golf courses, according to a recent count. A sizable percentage of the tens of millions of annual visitors to Las Vegas come here primarily to play golf on some of the finest courses in the country.
It’s not uncommon for Vegas golf courses to pay $1 million or more a year just for water. Next to labor, water’s the most expensive item in a course’s maintenance budget. In fact, conservation efforts have been so successful that the golf courses now use only 7% of the city’s total water consumption — less than the casinos.
Las Vegas is the driest city of the 280 largest cities in the U.S. In an average year, it receives all of 4.5 inches of rain. (Phoenix gets twice as much.) In addition, the temperature ranges are fairly extreme for a desert, upwards of a 110-degree swing, with average lows in the 30s in December and January.
For example, raising and leveling irrigation heads at even grade with the surface can increase water efficiency by about 20% ; upgrading to high-efficiency nozzles saves even more water.
The water itself is “brown” — effluent water straight from the county wastewater treatment plant, not drinking water from Lake Mead. It’s high-quality re-use, but it still contains salts that course superintendents have to deal with.
Farms, of course, are the state’s biggest water user, consuming 80 percent of the state’s developed water.
Although no one has estimated the specifics of the state’s water use since 2003, officials predict that the cuts will save nearly 500 billion gallons of H2O over nine months—enough for all Los Angeles homes and businesses for about two years.
The good news: Even the golf industry is coming around; more and more courses are using recycled water, leaving zones off the fairway unwatered, and taking advantage of drought tolerant landscape rebates.