Magazine - Greywater to keep Fairways Green

By Editor in Golf on 17th Apr 2008 6:00

The Premier Alan Carpenter has unveiled a $5-million greywater reticulation system at the Katanning golf course.

The Country Club will use the Great Southern town's treated waste water to keep the fairways green over summer. The project manager Peter Rundell says 180 million litres of greywater will be pumped up to a dam each winter and used to water the greens over summer.

Mr Rundell says Katanning is the first town in the Great Southern to use waste water on its fairways. "It's a fantastic opportunity for the club and for the town," he said. The Premier officially launched the system at the Katanning Country Club today.

Premier Alan Carpenter said that in a regional environment where water was both a precious and scarce commodity, maintaining sporting facilities was a challenge, especially high water users such as golf courses. “Like most community-based projects in regional Western Australia involving sport, it is the local people who deserve most of the credit for what we see here,” Mr Carpenter said. “The dozens of volunteers who have provided their time, expertise and machinery to build this reticulation system have enabled the project to remain financially viable.

“The use of greywater to reticulate gardens and sporting facilities is a logical step but it’s also a complex and expensive solution, particularly in the planning and construction phase, which involves building huge dams such as the 200,000 cubic metre dam that services this course." The project was carried out with significant contributions from the Water Corporation ($200,000) and the Department of Sport and Recreation, which joined with the Shire of Katanning to provide a $191,566 grant through its Community Sport and Recreation Facility Fund.

Additional funding of $100,000 was provided through the Department of Transport and Regional Services’ Regional Partnerships grant program and $50,000 from the Federal Government’s Community Water Grants program. Mr Carpenter said the Katanning Country Club was an example of the Katanning region’s reputation for providing good sporting facilities and encouraging people in the community to play sport.

“It’s been a great outcome and with this sustainable and environmentally-friendly re-use of water, the golf course will provide even more pleasure for future generations,” he said

Source: http://greatsouthern.thewest.com.au

Read more articles in Golf, by Editor or from April 2008.