Data Show Turf Improves Water Quality

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Data Show Turf Improves Water Quality

• Queenstown Harbor Golf Links
• Chesapeake Bay watershed
• Former farm land
• Mandatory monitoring
• 16 wells farm edge to Bay
• Nitrates, phosphates, pesticides

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Golf Course Improved the Water Quality

• 5 Years after initial testing
• Phosphates undetectable
• Pesticides undetectable
• Nitrate concentration decreased to 1/3 initial
  levels one well, adjacent to active farm, had
  elevated levels

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Where Does the Nitrogen Go?

• Michigan State University study, 1991-93
• Lawn-height turf
• Fertilized with 0.8 lb 15N/1000 ft2
• Tracked 15N over time

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Nitrogen Recovery in Turf
DAT days after treatment
Miltner et al., 1996, Crop Science.
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Do Turf Pesticides Runoff?

• Watschke Mumma, 1989
• 2 yr study, 29 sampling dates
• Kentucky bluegrass lawn-type turf
• 9-15 slope, clay soil
• Irrigation 6 in/hr for 1-1.5 hr to cause runoff
• Only 1 natural runoff event occurred

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Small Percentage of Pesticides Applied Detected
in Turf Runoff
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Why So Little Leachate and Runoff?

• 90-100 turf cover
• prevents sediment loss
• intercepts pesticides
• Abundant, contiguous root system
• absorbs nutrients and stabilizes soil
• Diverse microbial population
• degrades pesticides
• Thatch retains nutrients, pesticides until used
  or degraded