Irrigation Water Quality and Salinity Management

[Matt Schoolfield]

I just finished Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water. Besides being fairly bewildered by the complexity of water delivery in the American West, I was pretty surprised by the high and persistent salinity levels that come from long periods of irrigation.

My question here is whether irrigation salinity is relevant to superintendents or even designers. I guess I'm just curious because it seems like farmland that's perpetually irrigated can have serious salinity problems, and I just wonder if it's an ongoing concern for long-lived courses in areas like the San Joaquin or Coachella Valleys. If so, what are the mitigation efforts? If not, why isn't it a concern. I'm really curious to understand how it relates to golf.

[Matt Schoolfield]

I may have answered my own question. I've found a USGA article on exactly this subject  (PDF here):

Best Management Practices for Salt-Affected Golf Courses: Why and How?
Salinity – a dominant challenge.

BY DRS. R. N. CARROW AND R. R. DUNCAN
Green Section Record Vol. 49 (26) July 1, 2011

[Daryl David]

I have been a member of private clubs in the Coachella valley since 1991 and have never heard a single word spoken about salt affected water used for irrigation. Asked my current Super. He says it’s not an issue in the valley currently as courses do not use agricultural recycled water. They use water from the aquifer or course stored water. Not an issue.

[Matt Schoolfield]

He says it’s not an issue in the valley currently as courses do not use agricultural recycled water. They use water from the aquifer or course stored water. Not an issue.

Good to hear and thanks for letting me know. It looks like the groundwater recharge is also coming from water processed under the Colorado River Salinity Control Act (PDF), so it may not be much of an issue even longer-term.

[Wayne_Kozun]

Isn't there now a significant use of salt tolerant grass types, like paspalum, in places where freshwater is scarce - particularly Caribbean islands?  It also seems to be used in places like Texas, South Carolina and Florida.  This is from 14 years ago:  https://www.golfcourseindustry.com/article/paspalum-progress--turfgrass-management-/

Seashore paspalum can provide high-quality turf in reduced-light and waterlogged conditions, as well as in soils with wide pH levels. It also requires a lesser amount of nitrogen fertilizer to keep it healthy. But one of paspalum’s most powerful attributes is its ability to tolerate elevated salinity levels that would affect other turfgrass types much more negatively.[/color][/size]“It’s slowly but surely taking over the bermudagrass market for golf courses,” says Jarrett Eledge, golf course superintendent at King’s Crossing Golf & Country Club in Corpus Christi, Texas. “Its drought tolerance is amazing, and the color is stunning.”[/size][/font][/color]

[SL_Solow]

 Here in the Chicago suburbs we have a well to feed our irrigation pond in order to supplement rain water. More than 10 years ago, in connection with some issues relating to green collars and approaches, we tested our well water for salinity, PH, etc.  To no surprise, the well water was less beneficial than rainwater.  Not much that we can do except manage around it.

[Jeff Segol]

Hi Matt:


As I understand it, salinity is actually a bigger problem in some of the coastal areas, either because there's a high and salty water table naturally, or because overpumping of existing aquifers has caused salt water intrusion inland.


Forrest Richardson addressed this in two projects that I know of. One was Olivas Links in Ventura, where there was salt water intrusion into the existing aquifer from agricultural overpumping. The other was at my home course Baylands in Palo Alto, which is adjacent to San Francisco Bay and has a high and salty natural water table, and was also being watered with reclaimed water from the nearby wastewater plant. Reclaimed water also tends to have high salinity.


In both cases, I believe Forrest's solution, and I'm sure he'll chime in now that I've outed him, was to bring in fill to raise the course land higher above the water table, in order to provide better drainage, and to plant paspalum as the fairway grass, because it is more salt tolerant. I was involved in helping to pick him for the renovation at Baylands, and I did so because I used to play at Olivas, new that the conditions there were similar to ours, and therefore assumed he would not be fazed by what he found in Palo Alto.

[John Emerson]

Generally speaking, salinity and sodicity is not an issue east of the Mississippi River except along coastal areas. Look at it like this...in parts of the world where there is fairly uniform and sufficient annual rainfall one can expect not to have to deal with salt issues. Salt is easily moved with water and where there is sufficient water (rainfall) salt never has a chance to build-up to the point that turf quality is negatively impacted.

[John Emerson]

I just finished Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water. Besides being fairly bewildered by the complexity of water delivery in the American West, I was pretty surprised by the high and persistent salinity levels that come from long periods of irrigation.

My question here is whether irrigation salinity is relevant to superintendents or even designers. I guess I'm just curious because it seems like farmland that's perpetually irrigated can have serious salinity problems, and I just wonder if it's an ongoing concern for long-lived courses in areas like the San Joaquin or Coachella Valleys. If so, what are the mitigation efforts? If not, why isn't it a concern. I'm really curious to understand how it relates to golf.

I am not sure if I provided a sufficient answer to your question(s). As per my last post yes, salinity (and sodicity) is an issue that needs to be considered in certain parts of the country. Some parts it is not even a consideration and never will be. There are huge salinity issues in the west not only for golf but for agricultural lands as well. Water conservation is of the utmost importance currently and there are a plethora of best management practices (use of surfactants, leaching requirements, using recycled water, creating on-site water storage etc etc) that golf courses and ag industries implement to keep the salinity at bay in the west. The bottom line is that we literally moved heaven and earth to turn a desert into an oasis where not much grows naturally. In order to do so, we had to divert rivers and drain lakes and aquifers. Salts sit at the bottom of these water bodies . When the aquifer or water body is over-extended and one begins to draw water from the bottom, salt content of the irrigation water begins to increase where historically it is pretty clean water. As salt content of golf courses irrigation water rises, the need for more water goes up to leach the salt below the root zone. The rate of water use, currently, far exceeds the rate of natural lake/aquifer recharge. In a desert, recharging can take decades and decades assuming all outbound water stops. I am the doom evangelist on this board as most know, because I do not see this ending well for golf and americans in the west, especially the southwest.

[Matt Schoolfield]

Thanks for this thorough responses everyone, it's really interesting to see how related it all is. Yea, I was fascinated (and a bit horrified) by the book, and the two chapter update from 2018 was pretty wild. It really put the recent Oroville Dam crisis into much better perspective, and I have a lot of respect for the folks out there trying to manage the water for the tens of millions of folks who have decided to live in the desert. I remain deeply concerned about the extent of groundwater pumping though.

[John Emerson]

Thanks for this thorough responses everyone, it's really interesting to see how related it all is. Yea, I was fascinated (and a bit horrified) by the book, and the two chapter update from 2018 was pretty wild. It really put the recent Oroville Dam crisis into much better perspective, and I have a lot of respect for the folks out there trying to manage the water for the tens of millions of folks who have decided to live in the desert. I remain deeply concerned about the extent of groundwater pumping though.

If you want your mind blown on how over-worked groundwater is in the west..click the links.


https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/land-subsidence-san-joaquin-valley-california-1926-70


https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/location-maximum-land-subsidence-us-levels-1925-and-1977

[archie_struthers]

 


About twenty years ago we thought we had a salt water intrusion problem at my home club. Here along the Jersey Coast (USA) there are bays ad estuaries that go inland from the ocean. Our irrigation pond was smack up against the salt water marsh separated only by a large berm. I thought there were all kind of potential issues because of this.


Luckily it was another issue that was causing some disease in our fairways and greens which the superintendent addressed. However it emphasizes the complexities n growing grass. Bless the superintendents , thank them daily!

[Ian Andrew]

Salinity is a huge issue in Toronto. You need to be aware of which clubs are on which creeks and the quality of their water as a source. Some water is truly awful, other rivers are fine. It's very specific to each club and each source. It impacts everything from grassing to maintenance to selection of "trees." Oaks don't survive saline irrigation.


Saskatoon's soil is saline. A course I worked on was saline below a certain height. It impacted the routing, the hole design and the grassing decisions. It's super complicated there.

[Craig Sweet]

Ian, when you say Saskatoon's soil is saline, do you mean alkaline?

[Steve Lang]

Ian, when you say Saskatoon's soil is saline, do you mean alkaline?

I would never speak for Ian, but I believe the geologic record of Saskatchewan (which is quite interesting reading over the last several billions of years from being under sea water to dinosaurs and glaciation +) could easily imply saline (mainly NaCl, sodium chloride which makes up the majority of dissolved solids in sea water) laden soils and groundwater are present. 


Unique versus alkaline and acidic soils...