Joining more than a dozen courses in the area, the Plant City, Fla., club is making the switch from groundwater pumped from the aquifer, in a 10-month project that will cost $4.5 million.
The Walden Lake Golf & Country Club is switching its irrigation to reclaimed water in lieu of groundwater pumped from the aquifer, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
The 36-hole country club in Plant City, Fla., is joining more than a dozen golf courses in Hillsborough County that use the environmentally conscious method.
“We decided to do this from a goodwill standpoint,” said General Manager Steve Mercer, who is also a part owner of the club. “We wanted to be good neighbors.”
Workers will dig a trench to run a pipeline from the city’s treatment plant to the golf course 2 ½ miles away. The project is expected to take 10 months and cost $4.5 million, with half of the funds coming from a Southwest Florida Water Management District grant, the Times reported.
“The big picture here is that we’re using reclaimed water in areas that otherwise would be drawing from other sources of high-quality water,” said Frank Coughenour, Plant City’s Utilities Director.
The city will charge a fee to pump water to the course, and Mercer said the cost would be equivalent to what the course already pays in electricity and maintenance to pump groundwater to storage ponds, the Times reported.
Thus far, the biggest obstacle to the project has been the cost of laying pipes. The city will install a 24-inch wide PVC pipeline to the course and it will receive roughly 375,000 gallons a day.
Reclaimed water is suitable for lawns, ornamental shrubs and industrial purposes.
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