How much water is left?

Twenty plus days with high temperatures above 100 degrees and less than one inch of rain over the last six weeks has created some concern over the available water supply from Shadow Lake used to irrigate the golf course. So far, over 60 million gallons of water has traveled through the pump station this year. Over the last ten years, the annual amount of lake water used for irrigation purposes has ranged from 29 to 67 millions gallons. The most striking difference for 2012 is that the area is behind 12 plus inches of rainfall for the year compounded by an extremely dry  fall and winter of 2011.  Thus, the lake level is steadily dropping and exposing more shoreline than ever experienced by the members and or homeowners over the twenty-two year life of the property.  According to Dr. Lee Miller of University of Missouri, from July 6th to July 22nd, the combination of high heat and low humidity resulted in a 100 acre property losing over 9 million gallons of water just due to evaporation. Needless to say, water is a concern for homeowners, golf courses and municipalities throughout the Mid-west.

Hole #9 looking pretty good despite the three foot drop in the water table and the high heat conditions.

As a result of the low water table, I was beginning to get concerned about the "what ifs." Mainly, what if this drought continues into next year? Fortunately, Shadow Lake is 76 acres  in size with depths ranging from three feet to sixty feet. What I didn't know was where and how deep the end of the intake structure was located in the lake; what was the physical condition of the intake box; how much lake water was above the structure; and did the depth correspond to the depth of the water table within the well containing the irrigation pumps. 

In the last week, all of the irrigation supply unknowns related to the lake were answered.  Clint Gillis, formerly of Mid-West Pump and the person that installed the pump station in 2003, came by and inspected the pumps and well structure. Pumps are operating fine with minimal vibration and a seven foot depth of useable water exists before a low level safety alarm shuts down the pumps.Starting to feel a little more at ease, I acquired the local diving services of Andy Jones.  He found the intake structure fairly quickly and easily off the west bank of #1 tee. Andy confirmed the intake structure is sitting in  eight to ten feet of water below the lake surface. This information was very similar to the depth of the pumps sitting in the wet well. Knowing the depth of the remaining useable water table in the lake and using conservative calculations, the pumps have atleast 100 million gallons of water available to irrigated the golf course. This volume is a  sufficient amount of water to carry the course into next year.  As we move through August toward the fall season, I will continue to monitor lake levels and reduce watering where and when appropriate.

The assistants watching and waiting on the diver. The white buoy marks the intake structure location.