Negotiating Reclaimed Water Contracts: Agronomic Considerations

With increasing pressures to use reclaimed water on golf courses, superintendents are faced with a new series of economic and agronomic challenges, the first of which is to deal with the overly optimistic picture of reclaimed water quality and value that suppliers have painted. Because reclaimed water frequently (though not always) is of lower quality than traditional water sources, turf quality can be seriously compromised unless aggressive leaching programs, improved irrigation systems, modified soil amendment and cultural programs, and the…