Irrigation - Pump Systems

Over the years I have had a lot of experience with different irrigation systems on many different golf courses. My first was in Morris, MN the Pomme de Terre and their Rain Bird Eagle heads. Then it was off to the Fargo Country Club with their system. After college, I was off to Lahontan with their Toro setup but with a Hunter Central Computer. The setup at Lahontan was challenging and vast with over 3,000 irrigation heads, miles of pipes, several holding ponds, and multiple pumping stations that put out over 2,100 gallons per minute. This system put me to the test on irrigation knowledge and helped me tune my skills in troubleshooting and water management.

Panorama of the Pump Station. Filter on the left / Pumps on the right / Brain in the cabinet

Above is the setup at Victory Ranch Golf Club in Utah. We had 6 Turbine pumps that pumped 3,600 Gallons per minute when all the pumps are running across line. The pumps are supported by a 1 Acre holding pond that is pumped full every night by a lift pump that draws out of the Provo river. On average the course uses anywhere from 700,000 gallons a night to a peak of 1.5 Million gallons a night to keep the course moist enough to grow grass on its surface. Evapotraspiration (ET) rates in the high desert here are anywhere from 0.15 - 0.36 inches a day.

The pumping system at Lahontan Golf Club was smaller than the one at Victory Ranch but similar in construction. The pump station housed 3 turbine pumps that were fed by a 70ft deep wet well. This wet well was replenished by a 1-acre holding pond but also by a well pump that would supplement during heavy flow events. Lahontan would use an average of 350,000 gallons a night with a peak of 1 million gallons a night during the heat of summer. Evapotraspiration (ET) rates in the mountains surrounding Lake Tahoe were anywhere from 0.1 to 0.2 inches a day.

Both systems worked with an automated filtration system. The filtration system at Victory Ranch was an auto flushing system that needed no cleaning. It had 8 small screens that the water was flushed through, whereas Lahontan had 3 larger torpedo-shaped screens that had to be manually cleaned. Both systems were set to auto flush the debris off the screens according to flow amounts passed through them.


Failed pump replacement

During my time working at Victory Ranch in Utah, we had one of our turbine pumps fail and seize up. As far as the system was concerned, it did not affect flow as we never operated at our full capacity of 3,600 GPM. Below are a few pictures of the process to replace a drive unit on a Flowtronics pump system.

Pump with the guard removed and bottom bolts removed. 

These styles of turbine pumps require a minimum level of oil in them. The previous caretaker did not pay much attention to this and as a result, the impeller seized up and the pump had to be completely replaced. Mistakes like this can be costly and are the reason to have scheduled maintenance completed on time.

Our hired crane truck to remove and replace the drive unit.

Old drive unit being removed via a skylight in the pump station roof.

After the old turbine unit was pulled out a new one was fitted into place with no problems. Oil levels were checked and the break-in period was set for 100 hours.

Failed Purge Valve on Filter System

At Lahontan Golf Club we had three torpedo-shaped filters that filtered all the fine particles out of the water before it was pumped out to the heads on the course. These three torpedo filters flushed waste into a storm drain through the use of three automated heavy-duty vales. One of our three valves developed a leak so it needed to be replaced. After doing a little bit of research we found a company out of Israel that provided a replacement called Ooval. It was ordered and installed. Below is the picture of the new valve in place and functioning properly.

Electronic servo on top of the valve run by the Flowtronics Brain