The Town of North Hempstead was awarded a $3 million federal grant that will fund its Grey Water Irrigation Project to irrigate the Harbor Links Golf Course in what the town called a key undertaking in its capital plan.
“Gray is the new Green thanks to Sen. (Charles) Schumer,” Supervisor Jennifer DeSena said in a press release referring to New York’s senior senator and the leader of the Democratic Majority in the U.S. Senate. “The single act of reducing water consumption at Harbor Links will have a tremendous positive impact on our environment.”
Harbor Links, located in Port Washington along Hempstead Harbor, is the town’s only public golf course. The 168-acre course offers both 18-hole and nine-hole golf courses, miniature golf and event rental space.
The town called Harbor Links a unique golf course in Long Island that encompasses wildlife habitats, 50 acres of natural wetlands and native grasses.
Golf courses in general require high volumes of water to irrigate their greens, with Harbor Links using about 36 million gallons of water per year, according to the town. The course is one of the biggest water users in the Port Washington Water District.
DeSena called Harbor Links a “gem” of the town, with the project needing to find a balance between environmental responsibility and its offerings to golfers. She said the irrigation project funded by the grant will now preserve both by using wastewater.
The Grey water Irrigation Project is an initiative to collect and reuse greywater, or stormwater runoff, from a landfill near the Harbor Links Golf Course as a source of its irrigation. This would reduce the town’s use of freshwater and diminish the environmental impacts of the golf course.
Switching to grey water will not diminish the aesthetics or play quality of the golf course, the town said, and will maintain the golf course just as it has with fresh water.
The town conducted a feasibility study which determined the project to be ideal. The study and advocacy for the project began after changes in government regulations and water availability bolstered the use of grey water to irrigate golf courses nationally.
The project encompasses various plans, including improving the existing irrigation lined pond, installing floating aerators to improve water quality, incorporating the unlined overflow pond into the irrigation pond supply network, installing a new permanent pump station at the landfill and upgrading the existing irrigation pond pumping system.
The grant from Schumer was presented to DeSena, who has traveled to Washington, D.C., over her two years in office to advocate for town to receive the grant.
“Protecting Long Island’s sole-source drinking water aquifer and the region’s environment is more important now than ever, and that’s why I’m proud to deliver – along with Sen. Gillibrand and Congressman Suozzi – over $3 million for the Town’s longtime priority of reducing water consumption at Harbor Links and for the recycled water that will be used,” Schumer said in a release. “The project will be a model for other public and private golf courses and will ensure our island – not just Harbor Links – is green into the future.”
