Golf Course Dangers

I just picked up a copy of this week's Metro Pulse (Aug. 6-13) and to my delight there was a cover story ["Park Service?" by Joe Tarr, Vol. 8, No. 31] on one of my biggest pet peeves—golf courses in Tennessee's state parks. Thank you for revealing some of the politics behind this fiasco. As an undergrad in environmental sociology, I did a semester-long research project on the social and environmental effects that golf courses have on our natural resources. I spent many long hours talking to the very helpful souls at the Department of Environment and Conservation—the watch group designated to monitor the installation of golf courses in the parks. The people that I spoke with were surprised at my interest since the environmental degradation caused by golf courses isn't a high-profile issue. But anyone reviewing pictures and biological samples taken from the construction areas would be appalled at some of the environmental violations at these sites.

Basically I wanted to touch on some detrimental aspects of golf courses that your article failed to mention—though golf courses have been hailed as the next big draw for the tourist dollar (and thus purportedly bringing much-needed funding into the state park system) and touted as a wise use for our resources, the development practices, chemical use, and water consumption that go into the course lead to less of a quality environment to enjoy.

Nitrogen and phosphorus, the two most common ingredients in fertilizers, leach into the groundwater or run off the courses into nearby lakes, streams. The result is an over-enrichment of the water, leading to an explosion of algae, which utilizes all the available oxygen to decompose. Eventually, this means less air for the fish to breathe, spawning mass die-offs. Though the scientific research varies considerably, the common assumption is that 10-75 percent of the fertilizers used on golf courses end up far away from where they were intended, depending on the soil type, topography, grasses used, and geology of the area.

Furthermore, 60-80 percent of the pesticides that are used to kill weeds, bugs, and rodents are lost to the air shortly after application, where they settle on nearby areas and water sources, killing insects, wildlife, and plants that are beneficial in places besides golf courses. These contaminants indiscriminately kill parts of the food chain, potentially disrupting the entire ecosystem. Moreover, one of the common ingredients in pesticides is 2-4-D esters—a chemical component in agent orange.

The irony of all this is that much of the damage caused by pesticides and fertilizers could be averted; however, three-quarters of golf courses built are on or near wetlands, which act as natural filters for many pollutants. Current government regulations only require a very small percentage of wetlands to be preserved during the course development phase. Additionally, golf course development requires that large quantities of topsoil be replaced with sand and loam, which allows nitrogen and phosphorus-enriched water to leach more quickly.

Perhaps the most obvious aspect of golf course maintenance is the vast quantities of water consumed to keep the courses green—1.5 to 3.5 million gallons of water a week. And although we are not in danger of depleting our water resources, the water is returned to the environment badly contaminated and degraded. Furthermore, the natural grasses in the area are often replaced with non-native species that are very suited to golf courses but require even more water to maintain.

In 1937, the Tennessee state park charter was signed into existence with the provision that "each park shall be preserved in a natural condition." Golf courses directly violate that provision. Somewhere there has to be a moral to the golf course story—it's a telling sign about our society when "natural" comes to mean "carefully manicured lawns and no bugs."

Kristina L. Kirkland
Knoxville