Operating a world-class golf course entails more than just maintaining fairways and meticulous greens. Expanding National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) regulations require maintenance on the water hazards too, prompting Eagle Glen Golf Course in Corona, CA, to install a system to remove particulates from its water features.
Installing 18-inch Capture Flow Unit.
Unit set; begin backfill and resodding.
Capture Flow Unit after installation.Eagle Glen, which has been open for five years, is located on 85 acres near both heavily populated Anaheim and Cleveland National Forest. The 18-hole course also includes a 5-acre lake, which was the target of the stormwater efforts.“Capture Flow was installed to help meet stormwater requirements, as well as with future NPDES permitting,” says Golf Course Superintendent Rob Dorsch. “As we have schools and about 1,000 houses around us, it was installed to be proactive, as well as to meet regulations.“We haven’t had any water-quality problems in the lake,” Dorsch says. “It’s self-contained, it never completely dries up, and it’s only used for irrigating the golf course. There are no other plans, such as fishing, for it right now. The lake was put there as an amenity; there was no water there before. The bottom is PVC-lined, there’s pipe drainage to it, and the lake serves as a normal, old-style drainage catch basin for any stormwater runoff. “I’ve been at the course four years, but this is my first experience with a stormwater program,” he adds. The Capture Flow system, from Carson Industries in La Verne, CA, uses a three-stage filtering system. In the first stage, a stainless steel basket traps floatables and trash up to 1/8 inch in diameter. Next, oil-absorbent booms on side walls reduce the amount of hydrocarbons entering the storm drain system. Finally, as the water level rises, water flows through a polypropylene filter and is discharged through an outlet pipe. Sediments settle in the sump area of the catch basin floor.
Grass clipping and debris caught in the 18-inch unit after a month of use.
Fouled filter after three months of service. Filter keeps debris out of lake.
Filter replaced after three months. Units require very little maintenance.
