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Whether it's watermen in the Chesapeake Bay area or farmers in the Midwest, the question is always the same when talk turns to contamination of waterways by surplus agricultural chemicals: What about the golf courses?
In response, all researchers have been able to do is acknowledge that golf courses do contribute pesticides and nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers to waterways. But no one has known exactly how much because no one ever measured them.
Until now.
Agricultural Research Service (ARS) agricultural engineer Kevin King is measuring nitrogen and phosphorus losses in runoff from three golf courses-in Duluth, Minnesota; in Austin, Texas; and near Columbus, Ohio. He's also measuring pesticide losses from the Duluth and Columbus courses. King is in the ARS Soil Drainage Research Unit on the Columbus campus of Ohio State University.
ARS chemist Pam Rice monitors pesticides on turfgrass plots at the ARS Soil and Water Management Research Unit in St. Paul, Minnesota, with collaborator Brian Morgan, an extension turfgrass specialist at the University of Minnesota. Rice's work is part of a multistate initiative that involves standardized turf plots in various U.S. regions.
King and Rice-both receiving partial funding from the U.S. Golf Association of Far Hills, New Jersey-are the only two ARS researchers studying golf course runoff. While Rice does studies on plots, King looks at the effects of actual golf courses on the entire watershed they drain into. They are coordinating closely, especially on the Minnesota sites.
Striking a Balance
King had a lot of golf courses to choose from, since the golf industry is booming in Ohio -as well as in many other states -at an unprecedented rate. Courses are often intermixed with farms and housing developments in...