WWLPT Environmental Science Institute

Team 3: Richard Weber and Leonard Freidhof
Eastland Community Schools
Lanark, IL

Our project deals with nitrate loading caused by golf course maintenance. Our hypothesis is that the course fertilizing and water schedules will have minimal influence on nitrate concentrations in surrounding streams. Through our talks with Team #11 we believe that most of the nitrate contamination in an urban area with a golf course would come from individual households fertilizing their lawn to an excess.  Our idea is that golf courses would maintain a better schedule of fertilizing to keep costs to a minimum and maximize their profits from dues and course fees.  Below are a few sites that you can visit for info on golf course green management from the USGA.

Two other sites you may want to visit that talk about golf courses and water. We plan to study the golf course near Princeton campus. The Springdale Country Club has a stream that runs through it and into Carnegie Lake.  As indicators of nitrate concentrations away from the course we have picked two streams that lie on both sides of the Springdale stream.  The stream to the west of the golf course (Site 3) runs through a marsh before it goes to the canal.  The stream to the east of the golf course (Site 4) is found at the entrance to Princeton campus parking lot 23.  We propose to test the nitrate level of the Springdale course before it enters the course (Site 1) and at the bridge south of the course (Site 2) where the stream leaves the course .  We will test each site once everyday for a two week period.  Hopefully we can start testing during the 2nd week. We live in a rural area where farming is the main business around. A man-made lake community was established in the late 70's near our town. The community - Lake Carroll- has several small streams which feed into the lake and also run through the golf course built on this property. The course has two 9 hole courses that were built many years apart. The front nine was built during the original construction of the community and the back nine was completed in 1995. We want to see what differences there are in the streams of the old course and the new course. Are there differences in nitrate levels around the lake based on these streams? We are interested in following the nitrate levels of the streams around Lake Carroll and the lake itself during the seasons of a farming area. What happens during the fall when crops are harvested and the soil is exposed to more erosion? What happens in the spring when the soil is tilled and fertilizer is applied and planting is going on? What happens during the winter when most activity has ceased? We are also interested in how the local farms which have runoff into the streams effect the levels of nitrate in Lake Carroll. To proceed further with our topic just click on the appropriate page below.  Any comments or suggestions about Team 3's project can be sent to:

        Leonard Freidhof or Richard Weber at:  EMAIL -  lfreidhof@internetni.com