lead and copper, to name a few. All of these are potentially
dangerous to humans and wildlife when introduced in cumulative amounts to the surrounding environment.
Bunded washdown area
The practical solution is to find an alternative source of wash water or ensure that the water used in the wash down treatments is thoroughly treated, filtered and cleaned before discharge. Existing options include treatment and use of onsite irrigation water, stormwater collection or wash water recycling. The practical approach may be a combination of all three.
Incorporating an engineered, impervious washpad along with a closed loop biological washpad water recycling system (containing specific technologies designed to eliminate the golf course related contaminants) and rainwater collection into your current maintenance operations is certainly the perfect way to meet the demands of current legislation. This would clearly minimise the damage to the surrounding environment.
It is important to select a Run off
recycling system designed for treatment of chemical and organic contaminants specific to golf courses.
Run off area from reed bed Reed bed 54
A dedicated concrete washpad with a low lip surround (to prevent escape of possible pollutants) should be designed to collect all water from the equipment washing operations. In order for the washpad to efficiently catch and retain grass particles and debris, an engineered solution, such as a grass trap or sand filter, should be installed. This would allow contaminated water to leave the pad and enter whatever treatment or storage option is chosen, e.g. recycling system, oil/water separator or reed bed. For those clubs which do not seek, or feel unable, to go to the expense of a water recycling system, they should at least consider the installation of an oil/water separator or a reedbed filtration system, which helps to provide a naturalistic way of filtering and assists the breakdown of these pollutants before the water is allowed to drain back into natural water courses, streams, ponds or lakes. Most greenkeepers are familiar with washpad recycling systems and separators, with plenty of literature and information available, but another alternative, and somewhat less expensive, is reed beds. But, how do reed beds work and what is required? Reed beds use common reed plants (phragmites communis), a second cousin of the common marsh plant) to dewater solids in a
confined area. The beds can be any shape to accommodate existing land conditions and areas. Specially designed ponds with underdrains covered by a sand and gravel mixture are constructed and filled with the reed plants. Phragmite is one of the most widespread flowering plants in the world. It is a tough adaptable plant, which can grow in polluted waters and finds sustenance in sludge. This reed has a voracious appetite for water. The plant is tolerant to low oxygen levels and to waterlogged conditions. The reeds hold themselves in the soil through roots, rhizomes and an intricate network of underground stems. New plants in turn will sprout from these stems. These rapidly growing roots provide air passages through the sludge that, in turn, provide a host area for many biological communities to develop and continue to mineralise the pollutants. I have seen the benefits of using
reed beds for water filtration. Some years ago, when I was a Client Officer for a Local Council, we had a problem of a Bio Clear sewage treatment plant not being able to perform and retain water quality before discharging into a local water course. So, as a back up, we installed a reed bed system that provided the final filtration process before the water was allowed back in to the natural watercourse. It worked very well, and we did not get any more grief from the Environment Agency. In recent months I have come
across a number of greenkeepers who have installed reed beds to improve water quality. One such is John Chantrell, Head Greenkeeper at Lilleshall Golf Club. John has been working closely with Defra and gained the relevant approval to undertake the project. John’s requirement for a new
concrete wash down area led him to investigating the options available. He was already aware of the modern recycling and water storage wash down facilities on offer, but the problem was justifying the cost of around £10,000, not something he was ready to commit to in the current economic climate. However, he had heard about the reed bed systems and, after some
investigations, decided to build his own.
He began by constructing a five
metre by seven metre concrete plinth. This was bunded to collect the water, with a small gap in the bund, which allowed water to run into the first of two clay-lined basins containing the reeds. Each basin measured three square metres and 600mm deep (200mm of puddling clay topped with 40mm of gravel). John planted
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