Osprey Water Management News: 14th November 2006

New washdown recycling unit will reduce St. Mellons annual water bill

St. Mellons Golf Club in Cardiff is looking to significantly reduce its annual water bill following the installation of a washdown recycle unit specified by Osprey Water Management.

As a course St. Mellons is unique - it straddles the counties of Gwent and South Glamorgan, but, because the clubhouse is in Gwent, it is to that Union that the Club belongs.

A beautiful parkland course - laid out in the shape of a clover leaf - it is reckoned to be one of the best tests of golf in South Wales. Opened in 1936, some of the world's finest golfers have played the course including Sandy Lyle, Brian Barnes, Sam Torrance and Antonio Garrido.

The club was taken over by the members in 1964 to become St. Mellons Golf Club 1964 Ltd.

In keeping with a club of its standing, it offers first class facilities. David Fowler, a former St. Mellons club captain and a member of the greens' committee, acted as project manager on the provision of a new water recycling system.

Mr. Fowler, who repairs and maintains all the golf course equipment and vehicles (including regrinding cylinders), commented: "We started looking at a washdown facility over 12 months ago, due to a problem with our interceptor, which didn't comply with current Environmental Agency regulations".

"We assessed three different systems, including the MiTM 20R washdown recyle unit recommended by Osprey Water Management. Made of stainless steel and equipped with an ozone unit, we opted for this model because of the professionalism and technical expertise demonstrated by Osprey".

"Osprey worked closely with us and the manufacturer - Hydrascape - and their recommendations were put to the club committee, which sanctioned the funding for the project".

"As part of the facility, we built a new washdown storage facility and concrete washdown pad and, in the next few months will be looking to add a chemical store over the top of the shed to house hazardous chemicals," he said.

Mike Whitehouse, technical sales manager for Osprey Water Management, takes up the story. "St. Mellons opted for the MiTM equipment because it outstripped any other kit available. It has a large holding capacity of 1,700 litres and is the only machine in the marketplace to which an ozone generator unit can be fitted. The ozone unit actually kills all known pathogens harmful to man including: e-coli, legionnaires and viles diseases".

"This means that the MiTM unit is not just effective at recycling and cleaning water, but is able to clear any of the above pathogens. Machinery such as golf buggies, course equipment, mowers, tractors and aeration machines are driven or placed on the washdown pad and hose reels from the MiTMunit washdown the machinery with recycled water. The used water drops into the catchment drain, where it is channeled into a sump area. Here the contaminated water is transferred via a special submersible pump back into the MiTM to go through the biological treatment process".

"The work needed to be done in order to comply with the groundwater regulations that the Environmental Agency are starting to enforce in order to comply with an Act introduced in 1999 to stop the contamination of groundwater with hydrocarbons," he said.