SOUTHERN AFRICA BACTA-PUR® GOLF COURSE

On the 19th August 2003, Bale Environmental Engineering started the first Bacta-Pur® water body remediation and
maintenance trial in Southern Africa at a River Club Golf Course. The trial was implemented under instruction from Mr. Derek Muggeridge, who has assisted, observed and advised throughout the duration of the trial. The trial has run for four and a half months.

Objectives

The objective of this trial was to confirm the Bacta-Pur® POND bacterial solution’s effectiveness in controlling eutrophication in an urban dam in Southern Africa. The challenges being mainly high nutrient concentrations in a relatively shallow, warm, small water bodies.
Although the Bacta-Pur® products have been tried and tested all over the globe, Bale Environmental Engineering wanted to demonstrate the product under the relatively excessive climatic conditions in an African summer.

Methodology

Together with Derek, Bale Environmental Engineering selected a closed system dam with a recycle pump and a waterfall feature. The dam was small enough to allow for detailed monitoring, but still large enough to give a fair representation of the conditions experienced on the other dams. Historically, the dam has a continual build up of both sub-aquatic and surface weeds and algae. In the past, these plants have been removed mechanically on a regular basis. Not only has this been a time-consuming and expensive operation, but is a classic case of treating the symptoms, and not the cause.

Once the dam was sufficiently surveyed and assessed, Bale Environmental Engineering formulated a Bacta-Pur® Pond and LithAqua dosing strategy. As the water body already had a strong recycle pump with a waterfall feature, it was not necessary to add aerating systems.

Dosing Procedure

Half of the product was dosed into the pump outlet stream. This ensured good distribution and aeration for 50% of the product. The other half was distributed around the northern side of the dam, as it was evident that this area was not as strongly circulated.

The Bacta-Pur® POND was first diluted with water, and then slowly poured into the dam at the dosing point. As the dam was quite small, the Bacta-Pur® LithAqua was dispersed evenly around the dam from the sides. The Bacta-Pur® POND dosage was done weekly on every Monday afternoon. During dosing, Bale Environmental Engineering also made sure that the recycle pump’s strainer was cleaned so as to ensure the highest possible flow rate and resultant aeration of the water.
Weather permitting. Bale Environmental Engineering documented the trial by means of photographs at each dosing.
Results
The trial has been a resounding success. Not only has the product proven its effectiveness in eutrophication control, but a large amount of data has been collected for future implementation.
The strategy behind dosing a eutrophic water body with bacteria is to alter the path of nutrient consumption from the plant to the animal food chain. Bacteria (being the base line of the animal food chain) rapidly consume nutrients, reducing their availability to the plants. Simple, small plants such as algae are able to grow and reproduce at a rapid rate (double their population in as little 20 minutes). Conversely, in unfavourable conditions (nutrient restriction), their population declines just as rapidly (overnight). For this reason, the floating filamentous algae at River Club have been used as indicators of the trial’s progress.
The larger plant species have a more complex anatomy which allows for nutrient storage, and therefore more resistance to a reduction in the available nutrients. At River Club, Bale Environmental Engineering did not observe a noticeable reduction in the larger plant species, however, the populations did not increase as they have done through previous summers.

Filamentous Algae

During the early periods of the trial, it was found that the levels of filamentous algae floating on the surface varied
considerably from week to week. One week it would cover half the dam, and the next, it would only be in small clumps on the sides. After a few weeks of observation, it was established that climatic conditions had a profound effect. Not only did the sunny days produce much more plant growth, but the prevailing wind concentrated the filamentous algae in one corner of the dam.

Conclusion

Bacta-Pur® POND is a highly effective tool in the control of excessive plant growth in Southern African urban dams. It will provide the water body manager with a natural solution to eutrophication, at a fraction of the cost of other chemical and mechanical solutions. Furthermore the lack of interference in the environment offers huge advantages for the natural fauna and flora.

REFERENCES:

Bacta-Pur / IET-Aquaresearch Ltd. 97 Cove Street, New Bedford, MA, 02744-2516 Phone: (508) 961-2892 Fax: (508) 961-2894