02-10-1997 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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INTRODUCTION I I I r There ere an estimated 14,000 golf courses In the United States, with a pproximately 1.68 million acres of turfgrass (Smith, 1995). In Minnesota alone there are currently more than 380 golf courses, with more being built every year. Over 800,000 Minnesotans play golf each year, ‘he highest number of golfers per capita in the United States. Historically, a wide variety of pesticides and fertilizers have been applied to golf courses to maintain high-quality turf on greens and fairways. For instance, over 20 different fungicides are used on courses in Minnesota, and almost all courses receive annual applications of fertilizer. Because of this extensive chemical use, golf courses have been implicated as a significant source of water pol’ution (Selcraig, 1993). The construction of rriany golf courses adjacent to waterbodies has exacerbated this concern by allowing direct flow of runoff into lakes and streams. Most information on golf course runoff quality in the United States has been interpolated from studies simulating golf course turf areas (Spectrum Research, Inc.,1990). These studies suggest that fertilizer and pesticide runoff from turf areas is minimal. However, because the majority of the information was collected from experimental plots with controlled applications of fertilizers, pesticides, and often rainfall, the data may not represent runoff water quality from golf courses which must operate under less controlled conditions. Studies which collected runoff from golf courses found that some movement of pollutants in runoff water did occur. Sudo and Kunimatsu, 1992, found four pesticides in runoff from a golf course in Japan. Data from a study at Baker National Golf Course in Minnesota showed that leachate water from a golf course green can carry high concentrations of dissolved nutrients (Barten, unpublished). This study also found that only six percent of rainfall on a green percolated downward, with the majority of rainfall apparently occurring as runoff, which was not measured. However the available Information is insufficient to determine the effect of golf courses on water quality. Bannerman et. al., 1992, demonstrated that lawns can be a significant source of nutrients to stormwater. Because fertilizer applications on golf courses are similar to lawns, the potential exists for golf courses to be a similar source of nutrients to surface waterbodies. Bannerman, 1992, also demonstrated that runoff water from urban areas contains a significant number of pesticides, some of which are commonly applied to lawns. However , because golf course turf is managed differently than residential and commercial lavms, it may not reasonable to extrapolate this data to golf courses. L L 1