Abstract
In recent years, the turfgrass industry has received a great deal of criticism for its abundant use of chemicals on golf courses and the potential risk that this poses to the surrounding environment. With the limited supply of fresh water, the contamination of these waters is a major issue for the turfgrass industry. The objective of this study was to quantify the amount of surface water runoff from golf course fairways and greens, and determine the amount of nitrate-nitrogen and chlorpyrifos in the surface water runoff. Four sites on a golf course in central Texas were chosen for the study. Two of the sites consisted primarily of fairways and roughs, and two consisted primarily of greens. Each site was equipped with a monitoring system to record the amount of runoff from the site and automatically take samples during runoff events. The data was analyzed and then the GLEAMS hydrologic model was used to simulate the conditions of the golf course. The results show that less than 1. 5 % of the nitrogen applied was detected as nitratenitrogen in the surface runoff and less than 0. 1% of the chlorpyrifos applied was detected in the runoff. This illustrates the effectiveness of golf courses as vegetative buffer strips which can filter chemicals that are applied to them as opposed to allowing them to leave the turfgrass environment in the form of surface water runoff.
Birdwell, Brian (1995). Nitrogen and chlorpyrifos in surface water runoff from a golf course. Master's thesis, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /ETD -TAMU -1995 -THESIS -B573.