Environmentally Sustainable Wetlands Water project.

The Armidale Golf Club was experiencing severe problems with the watering of its greens and fairways due to the high alkalinity of its irrigation water supply and the presence of impurities such as phosphates, nitrates and bicarbonates. The water was not only damaging the course, but was having a detrimental effect on native flora and fauna.

The Golf Club has a ready supply of water, in terms of volume, derived mainly from a disused offsite former brickworks quarry about a kilometer away, but because much of the water is run-off from roads and adjacent land it also contains other impurities.

One way to offset alkalinity is to inject acid into the water as it is being used for irrigation, but this is an expensive process that is not environmentally friendly or sustainable. Such a process does not address the problems of the other impurities, such as dissolved salts and solids, in the water.

In an effort to seek a solution that was both economical and environmentally friendly, the Golf Club’s Course Superintendent, Warren Lawler, approached Dr Darren Ryder, Senior Lecturer in the School of Environmental and Rural Science at the University of New England. Their objective in collaborating was not only to find a solution to the Club’s immediate problem, but also to develop a model that others could use to address similar problems in other places. Their solution was to utilize natural and sustainable material to filter the water to remove its chemical and solid waste, and alter the pH of the water to a more neutral reading, without the use of chemical additives. There was also the additional objective of reducing the impact on local flora and fauna.

The project involves passing water through a series of collection bays and settling ponds containing gravel, wooden logs and riparian plant matter that improve water quality by physically, chemically and biologically filtering the water. The wetland is constructed to mimic processes that occur in healthy streams. As the water meanders through each of the bays and ponds a different natural process takes place.
The gravel bed filters the water, the logs slow the water flow into a settling pond which allows the particulates ( fine sediment and organic matter) to settle on the floor of the pond. The process continues with the gravel pieces becoming coated in biofilms that then make nutrients more available to the plants in the next bay. The water then flows through a reed bed. The reeds remove nutrients from the water and as the reeds decay, they form a peat layer over the gravel. Finally, the alkalinity of the water is reduced as it flows through this peat layer.

The water then leaves the artificial wetland by cascading down a rock chute into a large storage dam. It is aerated as it passes down the chute increasing the concentration of oxygen in the main dam, thus improving the habitat for wetland plants and animals.
A pump is used to create a fountain in the middle of the dam. Not only is this aesthetically attractive, but the droplets from the fountain disturb the water surface of the dam. This movement reduces algae from forming large colonies across the surface of the water, while adding oxygen to the water.

The banks of the dam have been planted with a variety of suitable plant types that not only reduce erosion, but attract local bird and animal life. The dam is now a major source of water for course irrigation, a haven for local birds, frogs and yabbies, as well as a challenge for all golfers being incorporated as a hazard of the seventh hole.

The artificial wetland is part of a major course re-development program for the Armidale Golf Club. The project involves the upgrading and realignment of a number of tees and fairways and the extension and improvement of flora by the planting of numerous native trees, all to be undertaken in keeping with best-practice environmentally sustainable guidelines. Already Club members have noticed the return of several species of birds, some of which have commenced breeding in the specially provided nesting boxes. A family of koalas has recently made the course their home.

The Club believes that the successful implementation of this first stage is not only a credit to its course maintenance staff, members of the School of Environmental and Rural Science at UNE, as well as local staff of National Parks and Wildlife Service (NSW), but the project could serve as a model for other community organisations and groups who wish to improve the water quality of dams and waterways at minimal cost and in an environmentally sustainable manner.

Secretary Manager, Mr Peter Moy, Armidale Golf Club
Ph: 02 6772 5837 Email armidalegc@bigpond.com

For more technical information about the processes involved, contact Dr Darren Ryder, University of New England Ph: 02 6773 5226 or email dryder2@une.edu.au