ORIGINAL ARTICLE Potential pollution risk in natural environment of golf courses: an example from Rusovce (Slovakia) David Krc ˇma ´r ˇ • Marian Marschalko • Is ¸ ık Yilmaz • Anna Patschova ´ • Katarı ´na Chalupkova ´ • Tibor Kova ´cs Received: 20 August 2013 / Accepted: 16 April 2014 / Published online: 1 May 2014 Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014 Abstract The objective of the article presented herein is to highlight the specific issue of the protection of water sources in the vicinity of golf courses. Currently we have experienced the construction of a large number of golf courses, which are often found in areas where the protec- tion of natural groundwater resources is needed. In this article, limit conditions are specified, which could be used in construction of other golf courses in the world, where there is a potential threat of contamination of groundwater resources. The issue is demonstrated on a case study in the area of a water resource, Rusovce. A major concern of golf courses is the fact that in an apparently clean environment of these anthropogenic structures contamination occurs, resulting from the maintenance, and the current legislation does not address this specific group of areas. These are particularly dangerous substances derived from fertilizer and turf protection, in particular the use of pesticides (insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, acaricides, e.g. ne- matocides, and related products, such as growth regulators used for plant protection). The results of the modelling at the water source, Rusovce, show that the combination of negative factors (for example, the groundwater table level close to the surface along with extremely high precipitation totals or the areas flooding and the lack of a golf course bedrock sealing) the limit value of 0.100 lg/l of pesticides concentration in groundwater was exceeded up to 0.880 lg/l. Similarly, such excess may occur in the case of an emergency situation (for example, the spilling of the barrel with the pesticide), where the concentration of pes- ticides in groundwater may be increased up to 0.874 lg/l in standard conditions (without flooding with an average depth of groundwater table level beneath the terrain). But even under a standard level of security for the establish- ment and operation of a golf course and standard proce- dures for the maintenance of the lawn, the concentration of pesticides in the wells reached 0.0001 lg/l. Keywords Pollution  Groundwater  Pesticides  Golf courses  Rusovce  Slovakia Introduction The golf courses represent the territories, made of a mix- ture of the elements comprising the anthropogenic fills, excavations or other elements (for example, artificial water reservoirs), which are conveniently nestled in the natural environment. From the hydrogeological point of view and from the perspective of a possible contamination of the environment, a golf course is a potentially dangerous environment, especially in the case of groundwater sources D. Krc ˇma ´r ˇ Department of Hydrogeology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University, Mlynska ´ dolina, 842 15 Bratislava, Slovak Republic M. Marschalko Faculty of Mining and Geology, Institute of Geological Engineering, VS ˇ B-Technical University of Ostrava, 17 listopadu 15, 708 33 Ostrava, Czech Republic I. Yilmaz (&) Department of Geological Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Cumhuriyet University, 58140 Sivas, Turkey e-mail: iyilmaz@cumhuriyet.edu.tr; isik.yilmaz@gmail.com A. Patschova ´  K. Chalupkova ´ Water Research Institute, Na ´br. arm. gen. L. Svobodu 5, 812 49 Bratislava, Slovak Republic T. Kova ´cs NUSI, Sva ¨toplukova 5, 821 02 Bratislava, Slovak Republic 123 Environ Earth Sci (2014) 72:4075–4084 DOI 10.1007/s12665-014-3296-4