No pictures since I still haven't found my camera and my family is on vacation and took their camera's with them but if you've golfed this week you probably noticed the water level in the reservoir. We are down a good six feet from normal and are having only moderate success at getting more. Turns out "permission" was no big deal. For the month of August you can do "maintenance of works" without any special request so we went in and dismantled the infiltration gallery and removed the silt and sand that plugs the intake. I don't think I've ever explained how we are "connected" to the river so here is a quick explanation. There is no physical connection, instead there is a large jumble of boulders that separate the river from an external wet well made of perforated concrete barrels that contains a large pipe which supplies water to the internal wet well. From there the river pumps draw water up to the reservoir. During initial construction we established a grade based on the historical low water level in the river. In theory as long as there was some water in the river there would be water in the well. That is true but the part that the individual who was consulting for KGC during construction did think about was the rate at which that water would flow into the external wet well at low water. The elevation we are pumping to, the size of the pipe, and the volume required to keep up with the irrigation demands all contribute to establishing a range of psi and flow that the river pumps need to operate in. Unfortunately, that range is greater than the passive flow of water into the wet well at low water and, as a result, we are unable to pump sufficient water to the reservoir - which is the whole problem.
Even though we've removed the "plug" there is still problems. Because we are stirring up the intake some small debris is making its way into the river pump house and plugging the screens which leads to decreasing discharge psi and ultimately a fault which shuts down the pump house. Another kick in the *ss today was the conformation that the dirty run off has worn the shafts on both river pumps. I need to check on tolerances but last time we had this it was $15 000 rebuild. All part of pumping from a river but we need to look at ways to lessen the problems and that may mean developing a well at the cost of any where from $40 000 to $60 000. It just keeps coming........
"HOLE OF THE WEEK"....hmmm maybe people need more time. In an effort to lead the way I've ask my staff to pull some knapweed on the bank below the driving range fence next to 5 fairway to show how to do it. We're pulling 50 plants a day during our morning jobs and it is only adding 3 to 5 minutes to the morning job. What if everyone only pulled 10 plants.......... imagine...... This may also not be what people are looking for to "help" but lets give is more time and see.
