Dick,
I'm used to answering questions about things like boogers, broken toy weapons, NERF darts and toads. As all 7 grandkids are boys, we don't delve into the intellectual world very often, but we do make up jokes and insult each other by calling one another bird names, like "bufflehead" or "tufted titmouse"! However, next month is expected to bring the first girl to the mix, so there's hope that things will elevate, as far as IQ goes.(In jest, of course. The boys are all smart, in a boy kind of way.)
I wasn't involved in the engineering of the waste areas, but I do remember the drain inlet levels in the waste areas are 4-4.5 above sea level, and the Calcaseiue(sp?) river is something like 2.5 feet, nominally. So, under normal, non-high tide storm events the water flows freely(other than the restriction valves in place) to the river. As far as i know there is no stagnated water for any length of time, and I would presume that only hurricane type events would cause any kind of problem with that.
Everything was built up; no scooping out of material other than ponds/ waterways that are interior to the course. Materials used to shape features were either existing sandy material that was moved very little, or imported clay to stabilize areas that were primarily composed of muck soils.
One interesting occurrence happened when the sand-cap stockpile was being depleted; we found that the sand had sunk into the native soil approximately 12 feet deep. It had to be recovered with an excavator, and more clay had to be imported to fill the void...which ended up being a conical hole, as one would expect under a conical pile!
Hope you're well, Dick. Spring is right around the corner.