Coastal Services Center

The game of golf is becoming increasingly popular in this country and developers often seek to construct new courses on sites with dramatic vistas of an ocean or wetland. Coastal resource managers in South Carolina are working to minimize environmental impacts that might result from the construction of courses built near sensitive areas.

"Our biggest concern about golf course construction is the proximity to tidal wetlands and the management techniques of old-style courses, which used herbicides and pesticides to manicure the turf right down to the waterline," says Richard Chinnis, director of permitting at the South Carolina Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management. "We don't want there to be any harmful discharge into tidal marshes."

Chinnis says his agency has seen a boom in golf course construction in the past 10 years. According to the National Golf Federation, South Carolina has a total of 337 golf courses. The state is considered second only to Florida as the most popular golfing destination in the country.

While there is much debate as to the actual impact the game has on the environment, the issues of concern for coastal managers include: the possible runoff and leaching of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers; the filling and destruction of wetlands; loss of habitat and the resulting impact on wildlife; water use; and public access.

According to Dr. Charles Peacock, professor of crop science at North Carolina State University, "Research and studies conducted all across the nation at most facilities where there is good, proper, intelligent management don't see a significant loss of nutrients and pesticides." He cautions, however, that no two golf courses are the same and that courses need to be "carefully looked at site by site."

A recent pilot study conducted by the University of South Carolina in conjunction with North Inlet/Winyah Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve illustrates the variations that can occur between two nearby courses. The study looked at nutrients in stormwater runoff at four sites along the estuary, which included a golf course constructed in the 1960s and a course built in the late 1980s. Researcher Dr. Joseph Schubauer-Berigan says the newer golf course averaged a total of 3 times more nitrogen, and 10 times more phosphorus than the older course. He notes one of the differences between the new and old course was that the older course had vegetation in its ponds, which appeared to help remove nutrients from the runoff water before it left the course and went to the river.

"The study points out that care should be taken in designing Best Management Practices that effectively prevent nutrients from reaching nearby water bodies," Schubauer-Berigan says. "Taken as a whole, impacts related to nutrient runoff from golf courses could be significant. Whereas the impact from the runoff from one isolated golf course may be insignificant, the impact from 100 or more in a small geographic area may be very significant."

He adds, "Golf courses are not the only possible source of nutrient runoff. Sources such as chem-lawns from housing developments are also potentially significant. They may be just as bad and we haven't looked at them. We really need a lot more studies to better understand the ecological consequences of different types of development and look for new ways to mitigate or limit the impacts."

Coastal golf courses in South Carolina can fall under three regulatory areas, Chinnis says. The state has direct permitting authority in tidal wetlands, such as for the construction of golf cart bridges and greens. He notes, "The filling of tidal wetlands is our only outright prohibition." The agency issues land disturbance permits for developments where two or more acres will be cleared (a typical golf course requires 150 acres), and they have certification authority over permits issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on federal freshwater wetlands.

In 1993, South Carolina's coastal management program "studied the available literature and science, and took the best available techniques and implemented them as policies" for golf course construction, says Chinnis. The regulations, implemented as part of the agency's stormwater management guidelines, include: setbacks of 20 feet from the wetlands for all manicured portions of a golf course; within the setback, the possible requirement of a buffer of native grasses and plants; and the routing of drainage from greens and tees to interior lagoons. The guidelines also include the incorporation of Integrated Pest Management, where golf course superintendents "tally or count an insect problem before they actually spray," Chinnis explains. "The use of pesticides is a last resort. Formerly superintendents set a schedule to spray whether the course needed it or not."

Chinnis says getting involved early is key to having the construction of a golf course go smoothly. "The early-on communication, for most any major project, is the most important part. By being involved from the start, you're meeting everyone involved and getting to know the personalities. After that, most problems are solved by picking up the phone."

If calling the developer to tell them they have a problem doesn't work, the agency can institute fines of up to $1,000 a day, can order construction to cease and desist, and in some cases, has provisions for criminal penalties. "Shutting them down gets their attention real fast," he notes. "We don't have a lot of problems because of our past history of enforcement."

He says because the agency developed "a set of practical, efficiently implementable standards and regulations, golf course [developers] now come in with completed plans for construction that already include our regulations. Everybody now knows the ropes. Every once in a while we have to realign a fairway to avoid a wetland, but it's really evolved into a cooperative process and is not a confrontational process."

An example of the cooperative process, says Chinnis, was the development of the River Course, which was constructed in 1996 on Kiawah Island, a private residential and resort community near Charleston. "When we first got involved with this project, there was nothing out there but woods. We followed them from the beginning and did a number of visits down there to monitor and ensure they were building correctly."

Because the course was being built along a river that contained shellfish beds, a bass pond, and wetlands, the agency issued permits with 15 special conditions. These included providing setbacks of 20 feet from manicured areas adjacent to shellfish beds, piping drainage from a hole over two miles to the community's existing stormwater system, and utilizing buffers and selective clearing. The course has since become a fully certified member of the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for golf courses, an environmental program sponsored by Audubon International and the United States Golf Association.

"If you know what the expectation is, it's a lot easier to provide a plan," says Ray Pantlik, director of development for KRA, L.P., which developed the River Course. "In my case, I had worked on other developments and knew quite a bit about what they typically require." He says the only requirement that was "quite extraordinary" was the piping of the drainage over such a long distance. "That was quite a length to go to capture all the runoff. But it was the one way we could ensure them and ourselves that we were not doing anything detrimental to the environment."

While most of South Carolina's focus has been on runoff and wetlands management, Chinnis says there have been a couple of instances in which natural habitat would have been affected by a course's construction. At one course, developers were required to realign a fairway and put a broad buffer around a woodstork nesting area. He notes public access on golf courses is a "really tough" issue that his agency cannot address because they lack the regulatory authority.

"The only other big issue that I see that managers are going to need to wrestle with is water usage on golf courses," Chinnis says. The problem is caused by the intensive irrigation that many golf courses need to maintain their turf, which can lead to saltwater intrusion into groundwater aquifers, potentially impacting a community's drinking water. "We're not the permitting agency, but I see that as something we are going to have to look at in the future."

Chinnis says golf course developers are usually willing to take the steps necessary to protect the environment. "These folks are now using an environmentally sensitive design as a marketing tool." He adds that while his agency's requirements may increase development costs, "the tradeoff is in the final product. In the long run, it saves them money. Minimizing the use of pesticides and fertilizers saves them money. These practices have proved to be money savers for superintendents. It's a classic win-win situation."

For more information about golf courses in South Carolina, contact Richard Chinnis at (843) 744-5838, or e-mail him at chinnira@chastn86.dhec.state.sc.us. For more information on the scientific studies, contact Charles Peacock at (919) 515-7615, or Joseph Schubauer-Berigan at (513) 569-7734. For more information about environmental measures at the River Course, contact Ray Pantlik at (843) 768-3418.