Golf Course Irrigation Source Development, Permitting, & Construction

Winged Foot Golf Club consists of two championship 18-hole golf courses, both of which are consistently ranked amongst the top courses in the United States. The club has hosted the US Open Championship, the PGA Championship, and numerous other professional and amateur tournaments.

The club’s irrigation system consists of surface-water withdrawals from two irrigation ponds. Historically, the club relied heavily on purchased municipal water during the summer months to irrigate its 36 golf holes, resulting in significant annual capital expenditure for purchased irrigation water. The property sits atop dense metamorphic bedrock, and prior efforts to develop additional onsite irrigation wells had failed.

Work Performed by Current Weston & Sampson Employees while with a Former Employer

In 2012, the Director of Golf Courses began developing additional onsite irrigation sources to reduce the club’s reliance on purchased municipal water and improve the long-term sustainability of the irrigation sources. The Director of Golf Courses, together with two current Weston & Sampson hydrogeologists who were employed at another consulting firm at the time, worked to complete the initial phases of work. These initial phases at the club included:

  • Conducting 72-hour simultaneous and operational pumping tests to evaluate the sustainable pumping rates of the club’s existing wells.
  • Specifying appropriately sized submersible pumps for the existing wells and developing an operational plan to reduce overpumping and maximize the annual withdrawal from the existing wells.
  • Performing a fracture-lineament assessment, and partnering with Hager Richter Geoscience to conduct a geophysical survey that was used to identify potential locations for additional high-yielding irrigation wells.
  • Drilling of test wells and simultaneous pumping tests of the successful wells.
  • Modifying the club’s New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) Water Withdrawal Permit (WWP) to authorize the operation of the new wells.
  • Constructing the required supporting utilities necessary to operate the new wells.

The initial phase of work resulted in the installation, permitting, and operation of two new high-yielding irrigation wells that reduced the club’s reliance on purchased municipal water significantly.

Work Performed by Weston & Sampson

In 2022, after operating the new sources for two years, the club retained Weston & Sampson to conduct additional water-supply investigations to further reduce their reliance on expensive municipal water.

Weston & Sampson began by reviewing the previous geophysical and drilling results to confirm the validity of three proposed test well sites that had not been drilled previously. The team used this data to select two new study areas for investigation using two complementary geophysical survey methods, allowing for 3D modeling of potential water-bearing fractures in the underlying bedrock aquifer. Weston & Sampson obtained the necessary well site approvals and coordinated and directed the irrigation well drilling, which resulted in the installation of two additional high-yielding irrigation wells. Following the installation of the test wells, the team directed supplemental development of successful wells using zone-isolation hydraulic-fracturing and air-shock methods and completed short-term pumping tests to support development of a test plan for a NYSDEC-reviewed and -approved 72-hour simultaneous pumping test.

The 72-hour simultaneous pumping test documented that the two new wells had sustainable well yields of 44 gpm and 101 gpm. Following completion of the pumping test, Weston & Sampson compiled the test data, prepared and submitted an application for NYSDEC WWP modification and selected appropriately sized submersible pumps for the new wells.

NYSDEC approved the application for WWP modification, and the club is proceeding with construction of the necessary supporting utilities in anticipation of bringing the new wells online in time for the 2024 irrigation season. Once these new wells are brought online, the club anticipates that combined withdrawal from the onsite irrigation sources will be sufficient to meet the annual irrigation demand, without reliance on purchased municipal water in all but emergency circumstances. The new sources will significantly reduce the annual municipal water costs, resulting in an estimated project cost amortization of approximately two to three years.

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LOCATION: Mamaroneck, NY

  • world-class private golf club
  • advanced geophysical survey methods for well site selection
  • bedrock well drilling and supplemental development
  • simultaneous pumping tests
  • permitting

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