SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/391471
26 SportsTurf | October 2014 www.sportsturfonline.com Facility & Operations square foot, based on your program per year for equipment, fuel, pes- ticides and fertilizer cost. Fiestas (Fe) for broadleaf weed control or liquid corn gluten for pre- emergent control are costly and have to be repeated a couple of times to get maximum control. Have a program using 100% organic fertil- izer works well and gives you the biggest bang for the buck, but it does require a lot of product due to its low N-P-K percentages. All of these products will have less environmental impacts on our ecological system and watershed, but do not come cheap and will definitely not have a comparable ROI compared to conventional pesticides and synthetic fertilizers; however, is a great tool for your EMS. Storm water management Recycling storm water is a sustainable way of managing your storm water runoff that is collected from your facility drainage collecting sys- tems. Collecting and reusing rainwater and recycling it for supplemental irrigation and gray water for washing equipment and toilet water can bring an ROI with thousands of gallons saved from the water meter. Vassar College started using salt brine this past winter to pretreat our campus roads to reduce the amount of rock salt we using that could cause harm to our local watershed. We went with a 2-1 mixture of dissolving calcium choroid pellets to a gallon of water to make our salt brine. We found a great savings last winter from doing this and a 30% reduction on rock salt. Trees help tremendously with erosion control, uptaking storm water runoff, and also from the photosynthesis process carbon/oxygen exchange. But it can also come with a costly price for certain sections of your property, if your trees are near power lines, buildings, parking lots etc. Trees can have a place for any sports turf manager's property, but they can also be in the wrong place, causing potentially hazardous conditions to life and property. I am not biased against trees or say they're not a great tool for your EMS system, but the facts show that from 1992-2007 the national average of fatal accents related to tree maintenance is at 80 deaths per year. The national average cost from property tree damage from storm events is more than $1 million a year; I don't think turfgrass causes that much destruction and yes, I know am going to pay for that comment (lol). Trees placed strategically on your complex can be a suitable tool for your EMS, but does add maintenance. The average cost to maintain a tree has several variables, but let's just say that an average tree costs $300 for maintenance and the canopy takes up 2,500 square feet. Using this example, the average cost is $.12 a square foot, but you also have to add in additional indirect costs for items such as for shade tolerant grass seed cultivars and additional fertilizer cost for your turfgrass budget per tree. Calculating storm water runoff from non-pervious surfaces can be challenging, and is influenced by several factors like pave surfaces or soil profile. A website by the State University of New York College (SUNY) of Environmental Science and Forestry University has one of the best storm water calculating tools. One topic is shows is that the capturing of 75%-85% of storm water runoff by installing rain gardens could help prevent flooding, high pressure currents in streams from downpour and reducing environmental problems for storm sewer systems. Two details from that website: The first is that it calculates the percentage of storm water that is infiltrated within your athletic fields and common lawns areas, based off of your soil analyses and square feet. It also shows how much percentage of storm water runoff you are generating. The second tool is the amount of impervious surface you have in square feet and the amount of storm water runoff you might have from your site's roof tops, parking lots, sidewalks, tennis courts, roadways, etc. Rain gardens do not bring in an ROI. In fact, they cost more than lawns do per square foot. The average cubic yard of mulch costs $18 and there are 25.96 of cubic feet in one yard of mulch. National prices of mulch per yard vary, so let's do $18 per yard as an average divided into 25.96 equals $.069 a cubic feet at 1.5 inches deep. Now take your labor hours for weeding and watering the perennials, shrubs and trees that make up your plants for your rain garden during drought years and your labor hours will show as a deficiency. greenhouSe gaS reductionS Energy performance is becoming the buzz phrase for the last decade because it brings a substantial ROI with it. There can be short- and long-term goals for your infrastructure to reduce your energy consump- tion for your EMS and have a tremendous yearly savings from your energy bill. With all of us having to do more with less these days, this is the first place you could start. I put together a list of ideas that you may want to apply: Lighting. Motion sensors for bathrooms, unoccupied rooms and vending machines lights; replace LED lights and exit sign from your currents system and installing dimmer switches for areas of your build- ings hallways, entranceways and offices that produce enough sunlight for safety. Insulation. Windows, doors, pipes and water heaters. Heating. Regulated thermostats, waste oil heaters for shops (if you don't produce enough oil, have your commonality drop their waste oil off for you to showcase your sustainable efforts). To manage the amount of emissions we generate into the atmo- sphere from our equipment, Tier 1 was introduced back in 1996 for diesel engines over 50HP and in 1998 for diesel engines less than 50HP. Tier 2 and 3 were introduced in 2000-2008 with even tougher regula- tions. The toughest regulation was passed under the name of Tier 4 in 2004 and later was phased in around 2008 – present, with the goal of all new manufactured diesel engines to have a reduction of 90% nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide (NOx) and particulate matter. This is cost- ing the manufacturing companies a lot of money to be in compliance and in return we the consumers are paying for these costly changes being mandated by the government agencies. recycling Trash. You can reduce your trash bill and save a small percentage from going with single stream recycling, if your waste removal contrac- tor offers it. This also reduces the amount of greenhouse gas from less carbon dioxide from garbage trucks traveling to pick up waste from your facility and the methane gas generated in land fields. The only thing single stream does not allow is food or wood, but some food