"We already knew that proper use of fertilizers and pesticides
on golf courses does not add any chemicals to surface or groundwater,"
Reicher says. "In fact, the grass itself actually will use or trap
most of the nutrients and chemicals contained in runoff from adjacent
areas."
The tracts from which runoff flows into the golf course wetland system
include not only the golf course, but also two residential highways,
a motel parking lot, a gas station and 200 homes.
Design of the wetlands is important in maintaining plant life and microbes
that remove chemicals from the water, says Ron Turco, soil microbiologist
and director of the Purdue Environmental Sciences and Engineering Institute.
Currently most wetlands are designed for aesthetics rather than to optimize
protection of the environment.
"We have discovered that we need to vary both the speed at which
the water moves through and also the water's depth," says Amanda
Lopez , a research team member and agronomy graduate student. "It's
good to have a mixture of deep and shallow water so that we have a varied
population of microbes, thus improving the efficiency of the constructed
wetlands."
The three constructed wetland ponds, along with a water retention pond,
are situated so they will catch most of the runoff water from the golf
course and the adjacent urban area. Water travels through the constructed
wetlands to the retention pond and then is recycled for golf course
irrigation before draining into Celery Bog. Before the course renovation,
most of the water went directly into the natural wetland without benefit
of cleanup by the constructed wetlands.
The researchers use six water quality monitors, or water samplers,
located along the wetland system. The first monitors content of water
entering the course. The sixth monitor shows the amount and types of
chemicals still in the water when it enters Celery Bog. These water
samplers measure oxygen, conductivity of chemicals, temperature and
pH level.
The study has yielded some surprising information, including showing
that oil and grease are almost non-existent in water entering the wetlands
despite the adjacent highways and parking lot.
The U.S. Golf Association and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
are providing funding for this research.
Contact Zac Reicher at zreicher@purdue.edu.
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