Last Updated on 12/1/2008

Published on 10/12/2008

By Clayton Stairs

cstairs@gtowntimes.com

Using treated waste water as a back-up plan for the irrigation of area golf courses in emergency conditions is the main idea behind a new Georgetown County Water and Sewer District (GCWSD) program.

After extreme drought conditions this past year, several officials of golf courses in the area have been searching for a way to supplement their water supplies to irrigate their courses. During a drought, the salinity rises in river water making it useless for irrigation.

GCWSD has poled all 10 golf clubs on the Waccamaw Neck -- that could reasonably be served with treated effluent (sewage water) from the Waccamaw Neck Wastewater Treatment Plant -- to see how much interest there is in this program. Participating golf clubs would have to provide onsite storage and distribution to their individual courses in accordance with S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control's (DHEC's) requirements.

"We are trying to determine cost estimates, which will be influenced by the number of golf courses that choose to participate," GCWSD Assistant Executive Director Larry Dickerson said. "This program would operate as a separate subsystem to our utility and would reuse water which would have its own cost per thousand gallons."

The GCWSD Board of Directors voted unanimously Thursday at their regular meeting to do a preliminary engineering report to find out if the effluent irrigation program is economically feasible. This is not final approval of the whole project, Dickerson points out, but an effort to determine how the system would be designed and to define the cost for the GCWSD and each of the participating golf courses.

In or out?

At this point, Willbrook Plantation, Tradition Club, Litchfield Country Club, River Club, True Blue Plantation and Caledonia Golf Club have agreed to participate. Clubs that have decided not to participate are Pawleys Plantation, The Founders Club, The Reserve Club and Heritage Plantation.

Lee Shoulette, director of development at Pawleys Plantation, says he was one of the golf course representatives who brought this idea to the GCWSD about a year ago. However, he and other officials at that club decided not to take part in the program given the state of the economy today.

"We replaced an aging well pump that supplements our irrigation system," Shoulette said. "That got us back to our original water needs for the proper irrigation of our course."

He says they have 23 lakes on the property that are tributaries to the pond from which they draw water. "If our area does not receive enough rain, Pawleys Plantation will use its well to augment the irrigation source."

Other golf course representatives were unavailable for comment Friday. Dickerson says golf clubs that have agreed to participate are interested in using this clean source of water as opposed to drilling wells to pull water from the Black Creek Aquifer, an enormous reservoir of water under the ground.

Treated effluent?

Dickerson explains that the process for treating waste water, or effluent, is in full compliance with the National Pollutants Discharge Elimination Systems (NPDES) permit guidelines. In fact, he says this water, which is regularly discharged into area rivers, is cleaner than the river water.

The treatment process involves using bacteria to digest waste coming into the treatment plant, which produces a clean effluent as well as waste water sludge, Dickerson said. While the effluent is cleaned further with chlorine and discharged into area rivers, the sludge, made up of excess bacterial growth or biomass, is sent to the compost site at the Georgetown County landfill.

According to the GCWSD, treated effluent is currently pumped from the Waccamaw Neck Wastewater Treatment Plant through Pawleys Retreat to Kings River Road. Then it continues north along Kings River Road to Waverly Extension and west to the Waccamaw River.

If the program goes forward, connections will be made along this route to serve participating golf courses. Main line extensions would be required both north and south of the existing effluent discharge and an estimated 80 percent of the total treated effluent would be used.

Common practice

Dickerson adds that using treated effluent to irrigate golf courses is a very common practice in other areas of the state, including Hilton Head and Kiawah Island. GCWSD has used treated effluent for the golf course in DeBordieu Colony for years, Dickerson said.

If this program is a success, several area courses will follow in their footsteps.

"One thing last year's drought has taught us is that water is a precious commodity and it can't be taken for granted," Dickerson said. "Any design changes that we can incorporate to reuse the water is a good thing and it ties nicely into the whole green recycling environmental movement."