Over the last several weeks, the warm and dry weather has initiated the need to supplement rainfall with irrigation water. As the need for irrigation increased, an issue arose with the correct operation of the irrigation system. Although, the pond has sufficient water, the large intake pipe appears to be restricting the flow of water and has not been able to supply the pumps with a constant water source. When an irrigation cycle was programmed, the pump station was "running" out of water and turning off. Therefore, areas of the golf course were getting fully irrigated, partially irrigated or not receiving irrigation at all.
Organic Sediment Removal (OSR) was able to re-schedule their contracts to assist in the investigation of our irrigation interruption. OSR was able to dismantle the irrigation intake piping and vacuum suction any muck and sediment from the piping and main wet well. In addition, they suction dredged the pond bay directly in front of the pump house and removed approximately 1 foot of organic muck which has developed over the last 15 years, since the installation of this irrigation system. Removing 1 foot of muck/Acre increases the water holding capacity by 325,851 gals. As expected, the divers did locate a few golf clubs, ball retrievers, golf balls and even a tee marker. What wasn't expected was the number of logs that line the bottom of the pond. According to the divers the pond bottom is lined with many large chainsaw cut logs, appearing that the logs were intentionally disposed of within the pond.
Although, the accumulation of organic sediment wasn't as great as expected, OSR was able to determine the cause of the irrigation problem. As the intake screen was removed from the pond, the reason for irrigation failure became evident. The intake screen was 90% sealed shut. When clean, the intake screen can provide 1700 gals/min. However, during this crisis, the irrigation system would "run out" of water when drawing only 300 gals/min. We were able to clean the screen after 4-hours of scrubbing and power washing with a steam cleaner. The system was inspected and repaired and re-installed.
Point blank range steam and power washing was required to remove algae and sediment thus clearing the screen pores.
An OSR diver prepares to suction clean the bottom of the pump house wet well.
Multiple divers were required to remove the intake screen and operate the suction hoses which removed 12" of muck from the pond bottom.
The muck is removed from the bottom of the pond and was discharged into the wooded area on #13.
The irrigation system is approximately 15 years old and has served us well. Annual maintenance on the pump station is performed. The exterior surface intake screen is scrubbed and cleaned 1-2x per year. However, the interior surface and inspection could not be performed without complete removal of the screen. I am expecting this extensive inspection, cleaning (as well as our annual inspections) and muck removal to provide another 10 years of great operation. Of course, now that the system is clean and ready to go, it hasn't stopped raining!
