Now that we are charging up the irrigation system, I thought I would write a little bit about where our irrigation water comes from…the Kirkwood- Cohansey Aquifier and rainfall.

Our water starts its journey to the sprinkler nozzle from all points of the world as it is evaporated and then carried in the earth’s atmosphere until it reaches the sandy soils as rain.

The rain that is not carried off by streams, or retuned to the atmosphere as evaporation or transpiration, percolates into the ground where it is stored in the earth’s rich underground. The Kirkwood – Cohansey Aquifier underlies over 2000 square miles of the state, lies about 10’ under the ground surface, and ranges in depth from 20’ on its western boundary along Rt 70 to 300’ deep along the Atlantic Ocean. It’s estimated that the Kirkwood- Cohansey Aquifier stores up to 17 trillion gallons of water! For those of you on wells at home, it is the source for your water.

Our pond on 12 is filled by natural seepage from the aquifer. It is also filled by rain and rain runoff from 12 and 11 fairway areas, and run off from the residential areas that surround the eastern areas of the course, notably from the neighborhoods abreast of 13, 14, and 5. We also have two wells that extend 150’ deep into the aquifer which we use to fill the pond when rain and seepage do not keep up with irrigation withdrawal.

The Kirkwood – Cohansey is one of our states most important natural resources, and as our commitment as a certified Audubon International Golf Course Sanctuary demonstrates, we work hard to protect it. We are careful to conserve water and only take the minimum amount we need for irrigation purposes, and we follow programs that protect it from contamination from pesticides and fertilizers. After all, every life on this planet is dependent upon water, so we do our best to preserve its purity and quality at all times and in all we do.