A new project that city leaders approved this week should make it more efficient to irrigate Eagle Bend Golf Course and athletic fields in southwest Lawrence, and staff says it could save the city millions of dollars over 20 years.

On Tuesday night, Lawrence city commissioners voted to award Schuetz Construction LLC a bid for the Eagle Bend Golf Course and Youth Sports Complex Irrigation Water Supply project. The project, which is budgeted at $2 million, will construct a raw water pump station, water line and appurtenances to supply the irrigation systems at the Eagle Bend Golf Course, Youth Sports Complex, Clinton Lake Softball Complex and Rotary Arboretum with raw water directly from Clinton Lake instead of treated water.

Andy Ensz, an engineering program manager for the city’s Municipal Services and Operations, said that the city currently uses treated water from the Clinton Reservoir Water Treatment Plant at 2101 Wakarusa Drive to water the golf course and youth sports complex. The new pump station, which will be located at the Lawrence Park District #1 Shop just to the west of the Lawrence Rotary Arboretum, would allow the city to use raw water directly from the lake to water the fields instead.

“It’s just more efficient because we don’t have to use drinking water to irrigate,” Ensz said. “It doesn’t make much sense to.”

When the city uses on average 60 million gallons of water to irrigate the fields each year, the costs of using drinking water can add up.

To illustrate how much of a difference there is, Ensz said that it costs $0.50 per 1,000 gallons to buy raw water from Clinton Lake from the Kansas Water Office. But treated water is worth much more — about $4.99 per 1,000 gallons because of the costs of treating it.

In addition to the cost of treatment, the city has to spend extra money to pump the water from Clinton Lake to the treatment plant and then to pump it back to the sports facilities near the lake.

Ensz said all the concessions, water fountains and dog parks at the sites would remain connected to the treated drinking water distribution system.

The city started looking at different options for irrigation in the 2010s. A report in 2020 found that using the raw water would provide long-term cost savings. If the city made the switch from its current system to adding the pump station and using raw water, the report estimated the city would reduce its annual operating and maintenance costs for irrigating the fields from an average of $425,000 to $42,300. Although there is the upfront capital cost of creating the new station and other fixtures, the report estimates the city would save millions of dollars over 20 years once the project is completed.

“The savings in operations and maintenance cost related to treating the water makes it worth doing this project,” Ensz said.