Saving water is aim of North Hempstead golf course irrigation upgrade plan 

The Town of North Hempstead will put a $3 million federal grant into a system officials said will conserve millions of gallons of water that are used every year on the irrigation of Harbor Links Golf Course in Port Washington.

They plan to upgrade a system that takes stormwater runoff from the town’s nearby landfill and repurposes it to irrigate the municipally owned golf course.

“The single act of reducing water consumption at Harbor Links will have a tremendous positive impact on our environment,” Supervisor Jennifer DeSena said in a statement.

The plan was among more than 50 Long Island projects that received about $87 million in federal funds through congressional earmarks, Newsday recently reported.

Town officials introduced a $5.5 million plan for the irrigation system upgrade in December 2018 in a five-year capital plan. DeSena's spokesman, Umberto Mignardi, said the town is moving forward with the project and either will bond for the additional funding that's needed or seek more grants.

Public Works Commissioner Kristin Seleski said the next step is to seek bids for engineering work.

Town officials said the golf course is one of the largest water consumers in the area, using an average 24 million gallons annually. On average, the town buys about 18 million gallons a year from the Port Washington Water District to irrigate the golf course and the rest of the water comes from reusing stormwater.

An engineer working with the town, Stephen Hadjiyane, of Cameron Engineering & Associates, said the upgrades to the system would make 20 to 25 million gallons of water available annually for the golf course, including some of the water now lost due to evaporation and leakage in the ponds that are part of the irrigation system. 

That means the town might not have to buy water for the golf course, according to town officials and the engineer, who said the amount of water purchased from the water district each year to irrigate the golf course still will fluctuate depending on weather conditions such as drought or heavy rain.

Last year, the town paid $151,273.87 for more than 14 million gallons of water from the district for Harbor Links, according to water district officials. 

Hadjiyane, an associate principal at the Woodbury-based firm, said while the town currently uses stormwater from the landfill to irrigate the golf course, the new project will “take it one step forward, allowing them to provide more storage for that water and capture it a lot easier for reuse.”

Hadjiyane said the landfill has a cover that captures stormwater before it runs into a retention basin that stores it. The water then is directed to the golf course, where stormwater ponds collect it. Later, the water is pumped through the irrigation system to water the golf course.

Town officials said the upgrade will include installation of floating aerators to improve water quality, installation of a new permanent pump station in the landfill retention basin to transfer stormwater to the irrigation ponds, and putting new piping between irrigation ponds and pumps.

Mindy Germain, a Port Washington Water District commissioner, said the conservation effort is important, especially during the high rain periods Long Island has been seeing lately — when more water can be collected. 

“This is the way we move into the future,” she said.