Irrigation & Recycling
Whilst it might seem strange to be talking about global warming causing flooding with one breath and the need for irrigation in the next, that is the paradox with the greenhouse effect, more rain in the wet areas and more drought in the dry areas!
Whilst the need for irrigation for Golf Clubs in England was substantially reduced during 2000, the need for irrigation of crops elsewhere has increased. To have a sustainable system the idea of recycling will have to be embraced. Sewage Treatment Schemes will need to be designed to ensure the treated effluent can be used for irrigation, and the sludges can be dried and used as fertilizer.
Recycling can be taken further than using treated effluent for irrigation, rain water can be captured and stored and used for flushing the toilets or for general domestic irrigation. A relatively simple operation and one that has huge environmental benefits as well as the obvious fiscal ones in areas which have water metres.
We started off this page with a remark about Golf Club irrigation, and while many people might think that this is a frivolous use of a precious recourse, the world wide growth in Golf Clubs has put a tremendous strain on local recourses. However, irrigation can be achieved without using potable water. For example:-
In 1997/8, David Trump, designed and project managed a Golf Course Irrigation Scheme in the South East of England. Golf Clubs require water for irrigation throughout the summer, whilst the standard and infrastructure of this course was very impressive, no long term plan had been made to irrigate the fairways and greens during drought conditions. At this time Kent was experiencing mains water shortages, irrigation bans, Abstraction licenses were being reviewed and revoked.
Recycling of water `on site` was not an option (simply not enough) and an external source of water had to be found. A local village Sewage Treatment Plant located 1540 metres away (as the crow fly`s) produced a daily discharge of treated domestic effluent of between 230,000 litres and 418,000 litres per day. This effluent was discharged by gravity to a small stream.
Research confirmed that only light industries would be allowed to operate in this small village and therefore heavy metals would not be a component of the treated effluent. The Environment Agency agreed that treated effluent could be pumped to the Golf Course as long as 100,000 litres per day was discharged to the stream. Simple controls using fixed plate orifice and telemetry equipment made the whole scheme workable.
Under Phase 1, a 200,000 litre effluent holding tank was installed, a temporary road was required for a seriously large crane, 19 concrete lorries on the turn around plus a couple of very large excavators were used, Phase 2 involved, laying 1700 metres of HDPE 180 mm internal diameter pipeline, installing a pump chamber at the sewage works, drainage points along the pipeline and a few road crossings. The project was planned to take 3 months, it came in on time and on budget!. The scheme has now been adopted by Southern Water Services.
For further information on irrigation or recycling schemes, please contact David direct.
