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 DEVELOPMENT SERVICES COMMITTEE

 

 

 

 

 

TO:

Mayor and Members of Council

 

 

 

 

FROM:

Alan Brown, Director of Engineering

 

 

 

 

PREPARED BY:

Steve Andrews, Manager of Engineering Department

Simon Hung, Development Engineer

 

 

 

 

DATE OF MEETING:

June 28, 2004

 

 

 

 

SUBJECT:

York Downs Golf & Country Club

Auxiliary Water Supply System for Irrigation

Response to Questions

 

 

 

 

 

RECOMMENDATION:

 

That the staff report dated June 28, 2004, entitled “York Downs Golf & Country Club, Auxiliary Water Supply System for Irrigation- Response to Questions” be received,

 

And that the taking of water from the York Downs Stormwater Management Pond for irrigation purposes be authorized subject to the York Downs Golf and Country Club entering into an agreement with the Town incorporating conditions and fees, to the satisfaction of the Town Solicitor and the Director of Engineering;

 

And that Mayor and Clerk be authorized to execute the above-noted agreement for the auxiliary water supply for irrigation purposes for the York Downs Golf and Country Club.

 

And that the Town of Markham request the Ministry of the Environment to reduce the York Downs Golf and Country Club’s Permit to Take Water accordingly.

 

PURPOSE:

 

The purpose of this report is:

 

  • To provide answers to the questions raised during the deliberations of the May 4, 2004 Development Services Committee on the report entitled “York Downs Golf & Country Club, Auxiliary Water Supply System for Irrigation” dated May 4, 2004.

 

  • To seek Council’s support for a water taking application from the Town’s stormwater management pond for the purposes of providing auxiliary irrigation water to the York Downs Golf and Country Club;

 

  • To establish conditions for the taking of this water from the Town’s stormwater management pond for irrigation purposes and;

 

  • To authorize the Mayor and Clerk to execute an agreement with the York Downs Golf and Country Club to permit the water taking for irrigation purposes subject to conditions satisfactory to Senior Management.

 

 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

 

This report addresses the questions raised during the deliberations of the May 4, 2004 Development Services Committee report entitled, “York Downs Golf & Country Club, Auxiliary Water Supply System for Irrigation”.   The questions relate to concerns about the taking of water from the York Downs Stormwater Management Pond for the purpose of providing auxiliary irrigation water to the York Downs Golf and Country Club.   

 

The questions raised during the discussion of the last report have been reviewed and investigated and the answers are outlined in the following pages.

 

Background:

 

The York Downs Golf & Country Club is located north of 16th Avenue between Kennedy Road and Warden Avenue.  In recent years the Club has experienced problems meeting their irrigation needs during the driest part of the season.  In response to this water shortage, the York Downs Golf and Country Club has conducted an investigation to find additional water sources for irrigation.  Currently the Golf Club has a water taking permit from the MOE to take approximately 10% of its irrigation requirements from five on-site wells and balance of their needs from the Bruce Creek.  An existing irrigation pond constructed by the Golf Club stores water withdrawn from the wells and the Bruce Creek.  This stored water is used to augment irrigation water supplied by their wells and the Bruce Creek during the driest part of the season.  The Golf Club has a permit from the Ministry of Environment to take water from both the creek and the wells until March 2006.  This permit establishes the maximum permissible withdrawal rate from the above sources.  The Golf Course anticipates that the TRCA and the Ministry of the Environment will reduce the withdrawal limit as a condition of the next permit.

 

The Golf Club investigated a number of options to augment their irrigation water supplies.  The Town is in receipt of a stormwater management report titled "Operations Design Brief for Auxiliary Water Supply, York Downs Golf & Country Club" prepared by Stantec Consulting Ltd.  The report concludes that water drawn from the Town’s nearby York Downs stormwater management pond “H” offers a reliable, environmentally sound and economical alternative source for irrigation water.   The proposal has been peer reviewed by the Town’s consultant, Terraprobe.  Our consultant supports the recommendations of the Stantec report.

 

 

The Golf Club is seeking permission from Council to implement the recommendations of the report. 

 

At the May 4, 2004 Development Services Committee, the Committee deliberated a report from staff entitled, “York Downs Golf & Country Club, Auxiliary Water Supply System for Irrigation” dated May 4, 2004.  There were a numbers of questions that arose during the discussion of the report and the Committee instructed staff to report back to Committee on the answers to the questions asked by the Committee. 

 

OPTIONS/DISCUSSION:

 

The questions expressed by the members of the Committee regarding the taking of water from the stormwater management pond have been examined.  The answers are summarized below in a question/answer format for easy reference.

 

Q1:    Can a supply of water be diverted from the 16th Avenue dewatering project?

A:      The York Downs Golf Club recently met with the Region of York to discuss the sewer construction along 16th Avenue.  It is projected that the dewatering necessary to complete the tunnelling activities will have a negative impact on the 5 wells on the York Downs Golf Course property.  During the dewatering period, it is anticipated that some of the water pumped to provide for the construction of the 16th Avenue trunk sewer can be used to assist with the irrigation needs of the Golf Course.  However, this will only be a temporary solution designed to mitigate the effects of the dewatering and will end when the trunk sewer construction is completed and the groundwater levels recover.

Q2:    Is dewatering from the Regional projects impacting York Downs' wells? Should the Region be required to provide a new well?

A:      As described above, it is expected that the tunnel dewatering will impact the existing York Downs Golf Club wells.  The Region is in discussion with the Golf Club on a strategy to mitigate the impacts and to provide alternative sources during the impacted period.  The Region and the Golf Course’s Consultant have had an initial meeting on this matter.

Q3:    How do golf course irrigation supplies drawn from streams and rivers impact local wells?

A:      The Ministry of the Environment is responsible through the Permit-to-Take-Water to control the water withdrawn from streams or the ground.  The MOE is to ensure that the supply limit set out in any permit-to-take-water is sustainable and that the taking has no negative impacts on the environment or other surface or groundwater sources.  Due to significant reported impacts associated with recent Permits-to-Take-Water issued by the Ministry of the Environment there appears to be a heightened awareness of the need to ensure a thorough technical review of any application.  In the case of York Downs, they have approval from the Ministry to withdraw certain volumes of water from Bruce Creek as well as from the wells located on the property. Staff are advised that there are no local wells in the area that are affected by the water taking operation.  The proposal to utilize stormwater runoff will reduce the reliance on surface and groundwater sources during dry periods.  It is expected that the Ministry will require a thorough review of the current water taking limits and its associated impacts before another permit is issued in 2006.

Q4:    Will this proposal create dewatering impacts?

A:      No de-watering is required to provide for the construction of the proposal. Therefore there will be no impacts to neighbouring wells or other surface water users.  As indicated previously, the use of storm water from the Town’s stormwater system will assist York Downs in reducing their dependence on ground water and surface water resources. 

Q5:    Provide information of the water-taking permits issued by the Province for the York Downs Golf Club

A:      The Current Water-Taking Permit from MOE is attached for information.

Q6:    How many liters of recharge into the land will be involved?

A:      One of the advantages of this system is that water, once irrigated on the golf course will percolate through soil to recharge underground water.  The consultant is unable to quantify the rate of recharge as it depends on a number of factors such as weather, soil type, degree of saturation of the soil, amount of water being used from the new system and temperature.

Q7:    Is municipal water an option?

A:      Municipal water is not an acceptable option.  The highest demand for irrigation water occurs during the summer when the weather is hot and dry.  This peak demand period is coincident with the period when residential lawn watering creates the highest demand on the Town’s water supplies.  During prolonged hot and dry periods the Town may imposed water use restriction as regulated by By-law 105-95.  A copy of the by-law is attached for information.  The sale of large quantities of Town water to golf courses for irrigation purposes would reduce available water to the community.

The current shortage of water supply has a limiting effect on future development in the short term.  Any diversion of water for other uses will put additional pressure on the system to service future development.

The supply of municipal water to Golf Courses for irrigation has not been supported in general because there are no surplus supplies and the use of Town water in this case would not be a good utilization of this valuable resource.

Q8:    Is this proposal premature until the water allocation shortfall is confirmed by York Region?

 

A:      For the reasons stated above, providing municipal water to meet the Golf Course’s needs is not a viable option.  As such, the water allocation issue is not related to this application.

Q9:    If this proposal is approved, should the existing permit with MOE to take water be cancelled?

A:      The additional water from the storm water pond will supplement the supply and reduce the reliance on the groundwater and surface supply.  As a result, staff are recommending the existing Permit-to-Take-Water from the MOE be amended by reducing the limit equal to the amount of water provided by the proposal.  The York Downs Golf Club agree, in principle, to staff’s recommendation to reduce the water taking permit limits.

Q10:  If a well on site is not functioning, should it be decommissioned?

A:      There are five wells on the York Downs property.  The well system is currently providing a small portion of the overall irrigation supply needed each year.  The wells are functioning at different levels of efficiency.  Some of the wells need maintenance work, which the York Downs Golf Club is planning to undertake.  The current wells will continue to be used by the golf club up to the limit to be established by the MOE.

Q11:  Is it better environmentally to use groundwater or stormwater management pond water?

A:      The use of stormwater management pond water for irrigation will recharge the groundwater through percolation whereas the use of groundwater will tend to draw down the water table.  The use of the stormwater management pond water is better for maintaining the groundwater levels.  The proposal will increase recharge of stormwater into the ground which will correspondingly reduce downstream creek stormwater runoff volumes.  Reduced stormwater runoff volumes will reduce the rate of downstream watercourse erosion.

For information, the Golf Club tested the quality of the SWMP water in 2003 to determine its suitability for irrigation and percolation into the groundwater.  It was found to be acceptable.

Q12:  What is the recovery to the Town for costs related to processing and supervising this proposal and for the use of Town stormwater?

A:      Staff will negotiate with the Golf Course the fees required to recover all Engineering review and processing costs, on-going supervision, monitoring and operations costs and for payment for the use of the stormwater resource itself.

CONCLUSION:

Staff recommends that the taking of water from the York Downs Stormwater Management Pond for irrigation purposes be authorized subject to following conditions:

 

  • That the York Downs Golf and Country Club enter into an agreement with the Town satisfactory to the Town Solicitor and the Director of Engineering;

 

  • And the York Downs Golf and Country Club agree to pay the appropriate fees as determined by the Director of Engineering;

 

·        And that the Ministry of the Environment reduce the York Downs Golf and Country Club’s Permit to Take Water accordingly.

ATTACHMENTS:

Attachment A:              MOE Permit-To-Take-Water 96-P-3033- dated 1997

Attachment B:               By-law 105-95 “A by-law to regulate the use of water in the Town of Markham”

Attachment C:              Development Services Committee Report entitled; “York Downs Golf Course Auxiliary Water Supply for Irrigation” dated May 4, 2004

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alan Brown, C.E.T.

Director of Engineering

 

Jim Baird, M.C.I.P., R.P.P.

Commissioner of Development Services

 

 

 

 

 

Q:\Development\Engineering\REPORTS\2004\June\Report-Water Taking at York Down GC- June 28.doc