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Water Quality Impacts by Golf Courses
Author(s) -
Cohen Stuart,
Svrjcek Amelia,
Durborow Tom,
Barnes N. LaJan
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of environmental quality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.888
H-Index - 171
eISSN - 1537-2537
pISSN - 0047-2425
DOI - 10.2134/jeq1999.00472425002800030010x
Subject(s) - environmental science , surface water , pesticide , water quality , nitrate , agriculture , toxicology , environmental chemistry , hydrology (agriculture) , chemistry , environmental engineering , agronomy , ecology , biology , geotechnical engineering , organic chemistry , engineering
Interest in water quality impacts by golf courses has grown significantly since the late 1980s due mostly to the local permitting process. Results from permit‐driven studies are frequently not published. Seventeen studies (36 golf courses) passed our review criteria and were incorporated into a detailed data review. A total of 16 587 data points from pesticide, metabolite, solvent, and NO 3 analyses of surface water and ground water were reviewed. There were approximately 90 organics analyzed in the surface water database and approximately 115 organics in the ground water database. Widespread and/or repeated water quality impacts by golf courses are not happening at the sites studied. None of the authors of the individual studies concluded that toxicologically significant impacts were observed, although HALs, MCLs, or MACs were occasionally exceeded. The individual pesticide database entries that exceeded HALs/MCLs for ground water and surface water were 0.07 and 0.29%, respectively. The percentages would be somewhat higher if they could be expressed in terms of samples collected rather than chemicals analyzed. The MCL (10 mg/L) for nitrate—nitrogen (NO 3 —N) in surface water was not exceeded, and only 31/849 (3.6%) of the samples exceeded the MCL in ground water; however, most of the NO 3 MCL exceedances were apparently due to prior agricultural land use. There was a slight trend for detected pesticides to be more persistent and more mobile than pesticides that were not detected, but the trend was not statistically significant. There are major data gaps in this review, particularly in the midcontinent area.