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: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/621615
TOOLS & EQUIPMENT 40 SportsTurf | January 2016 www.sportsturfonline.com New water treatment product I t's widely known that the serious drought conditions in California and other western states have taken a criti- cal toll on the agriculture industry. But did you know that many K-12 schools and universities throughout these regions have had to drastically curtail and, in some cases eliminate, their outdoor sports activities due to the sustained lack of rain- fall? In Santa Cruz, CA restrictions were imposed on all residents and businesses starting in 2014, in order to cut overall use by 25% (in June of the same year it became a statewide mandate). Businesses and organizations with large landscaped sites, including schools and city parks using outdoor irrigation systems, were required to limit themselves to one-third of the water that was needed to maintain their gardens, lawns or fields. As a result, fields were closed at UC Santa Cruz as well as local high schools. Athletic programs were put on hold. This may sound like an extreme scenario, but it is far from being an isolated case. Throughout California and other drought-ravaged states, the dwindling supplies of water for landscape purposes are responsible for the closure of parks, playgrounds and sports fields. Aesthetics aren't the only thing at risk when restrictions are imposed on land- scaped grounds. When outdoor school and recreational areas are not adequately wa- tered, the ground becomes rock hard and for those playing soccer or football, or even children playing at recess outside of their elementary schools, the results of falling on such hard ground can be injurious. For this reason, parks, recreation and grounds su- perintendents and maintenance managers are clamoring for solutions that will allow them to make their limited irrigation water go further. The following report highlights one such solution that is not only rescu- ing landscaped areas, but is also saving groundskeepers a substantial amount of money by eliminating the cost and labor of using wetting agents. THE DISCOVERY SCHOOL, BAKERSFIELD, CA In the Fruitvale School District, located in northwest Bakersfield, Brian Prine has been Director of Maintenance, Opera- tions and Transportation, for almost 11 years. Brian oversees the irrigation of six different campuses in this region. When state requirements forced him to cut his watering time from 6 days a week to 3 days a week, the results were soon evident. The turf on some of the grounds and fields turned brown and, in localized areas, dis- appeared altogether. One of the campus- es, the Discovery Elementary School, was particularly troublesome. The soil there was clay-based and the lack of water was slowly turning the ground to brick. Before the drought restrictions were imposed, Prine used to water the grounds 6 days a week in the summer. Now, he is limited to 3 days of watering per week. "I can't increase my watering," said Prine. "And because my campus is so big, I need the full watering time allotted to me. So I had to find a solution that could keep the soil and turf healthy, using half as much water." However, after doing some research, Prine was hard-pressed to find a solution that was within his budget. "I could use a 'liquid gypsum' product on the grounds that has been known to work. But the cost was beyond what my budget allowed. The cost of one year's worth of applications would be $7,860, and that's not even considering the added expenses of time and labor needed to apply the wet- ting agent about every other month." Prine also heard about a water treat- ment product from a company called Magnation Water Technologies, which claimed to save water, support healthy soil and grass and eliminate the need for wet- ting agents. Figuring that it was worth a try, he put Magnation to the test on his most problematic campus. He found that the Magnation system could easily be in- tegrated with his existing irrigation set-up at the Discovery School. The company claimed that the product can last for as long as 15 years without needing replace- ment. The cost? $3400. Compared to the $7860 for one application of a wetting solution that would only cover one year, it was well worth the trial, according to Prine. When students returned to school last fall, the grounds were healthy and look- ing good. To ascertain just how well this new irrigation treatment is working, Prine and his crew take monthly samples from Editor's note: This article was supplied by Magnation Water Technologies.