Bay Area country club gulps over 2 million gallons of water a week

[KamaAina]

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Bay-Area-country-club-gulps-more-than-2-million-6614294.php

It takes a lot of water to feed the lush lawns that drape in vibrant folds across the Menlo Country Club’s golf course on the edge of Woodside. And, apparently, a crippling drought is seen as no reason to pull back on the spigot.

The exclusive, gated club topped a list of excessive irrigation water users released Thursday by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, slurping up 320,842 gallons a day in September — or enough to supply 7,825 typical San Francisco homes with water....

Those customers were told in 2014 to trim their water use by 10 percent compared with 2013, and this year to cut back 25 percent. The list released Thursday detailed those who went over the limits in June, August and September, and it was immediately clear that violators came from across the demographic map.

Most going over the limits in San Francisco were businesses, nonprofits and public agencies — ranging from UCSF Medical Center to a Safeway in the Marina. There were luxury high-rise apartment towers and the Mercy Housing agency for poverty and affordable housing. Other offenders included Caltrans, the Institute on Aging, the state Department of Parks and even BART’s 24th Street Station.

There's a golf course in Marin that has the right idea: it's not watering within 100 yards of the tees. This works from a golf perspective as well: if you hit your drive less than 100 yards, you should encounter a hazard!

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Water-cutback-has-golf-courses-cemeteries-6176188.php

Even before the order, many Bay Area residents and agencies took steps to cut water use. Other changes are in the works. The Mill Valley Golf Course, for instance, will stop watering the first 100 yards off its tees, said Gil Bennett, the manager of what he said is the oldest course in Marin County.

“The golfers understand,” said Bennett, adding that eight of the nine holes already have artificial turf tee boxes. “We’ll be fine.”

[arcane1]

1. Assholes n/t

[Wellstone ruled]

2. If one thinks the 1% ers are going to give up their Green lush lawns

and fountains,not going to happen. We see on a daily basis here in the Vegas Valley. We have one so called Estate owned by the Newspaper owner that takes the same amount as this Golf Course. BTW,Vegas Valley is now less than 50% lawns,and the water district just increased the rebate two 2 dollars a foot for converting to Desert Landscaping. Down side,it increase the ambient air temp as much as 10 degrees during the summer. We are at half lawn half desert scape,waiting for bids on astro turf but that is just one option.

[truedelphi]

3. Thanks for the post. When you stated this:

"Down side, it increases the ambient air temp as much as 10 degrees during the summer."
###

Are you saying that by not having lawns the air temps then go up? That is one of my pet theories too. So am quite interested in knowing I understand you correctly.

As bad as it is to have these folks ignore the pleas to conserve, one upside is this one: the wildlife has somewhere to go for water and bugs and habitat.

[Wellstone ruled]

5. Me bad,

lawns keep the ambient air temps as much as 10 degrees cooler. We have done temp measurements on our lawn versus the Desert Scaped areas several times over a two year time frame. Months of June July and August,the Desert Scape(rocks)is usually as much as ten degrees warmer. What we noticed is the heat effect in the over night hours once the rock gardens heat up thy stay hot most of the night were as the lawn will cool down. If you do not have A/C good luck.

[petronius]

11. Irrigation can have a strong effect on temperature, particularly summer daytime temps

In the Central Valley for example, full irrigation of the surface seems to produce a reduction in daytime temperatures of ~2.5-4.5C, an effect which diminishes as land is taken out of irrigation or more water-efficient irrigation strategies are used.

What happens is that with irrigation, energy that would go into heating the air and surface (sensible heat) is instead used to evaporate water (latent heat), leading to a reduced amount of warming over the course of the day...

[truedelphi]

15. Sort of why I have become a Global Climate Change Denier -

Yeah, people are causing havoc with the environment, but everyone stepping into believing the latest mantra, and then acting on that mantra can be devastating also.

It is almost like every "silver lining" packs a walloping polluting black cloud!

One Mantra:

Cows are very very bad, as they constantly outgas methane.

That might be true, but if we had a truly liberal-progressive government that supported the decent practices of small family farms, the methane would be offset by the environment in which the cows were raised. (Obama letting Geithner's policies destroy the small farms here in California was a terrible way to go - as the bigger more destructive end of the dairy industry only increased, while the smaller farms went belly up.)

BTW, a friend was telling me that the continual use of the wireless technology that has resulted in so many cell phone antennae being installed everywhere with cell phones being continually used is responsible for the Arctic ice melting before the Antarctic ice did. Apparently the non ionizing radiation from the cell phone towers and the phones themselves is inclined to travel "up" the magnetic shield of the earth, to the North Pole.

So many people are really into saying "Get rid of cows" but no one is willing to give up their cell phones, despite the slave labor of the Chinese utilized by the big American companies to produce the phones and now possibly this devastating aspect of the involvement of the cell phones with Global Warming.

[Lordquinton]

4. I would avoid artifical turf

That stuff is a maintenance nightmare and heats up excessively.

[Wellstone ruled]

6. Had a hunch,we had turf at the Club House and it was replace with a Flower Garden and Roses.

and a seating area. Heard the real down side is turf has a five year life span. Think we will keep the grass and eat the water bill. This whole water conservation thing has ugly side to it does it not. But the Vegas Strip needs their water and we are a Tourist town after all and we sell Imaginary feel good moment.

[Lordquinton]

7. The Strip is actually very water efficient

Unless things have drastically changed they have been sending water back to lake mead close to what was taken out of it (Heavy recycling, using it three+ times etc.) These are options unfortunately not open to home owners.

There's also the fact that Vegas is in a spot that is actively bad for a city to be, was part of the whole founding principal, that whol oasis in a desert thing. Unfortunately reality is close catching up with the dream, unless everyone moves into condos close to the strip to conserve power and water, it can't last.

[Wellstone ruled]

8. The story that is not told is

we do have manufacturing. And in saying that,it is for the most part mega water dependent. Cement plant one of the largest in the world,Sheet Rock(wall board)again one of the largest in the world,Perclorate(rocket fuel)massive operation,Manganese plant. These plants require massive amounts of water to operate. If you are some what fimiliar with a Pulp and Paper Operation,well these plants are in the same water usage category. And yes the Strip Water Features do recycle because of the amount of Chlorine required to prevent health hazards,and the Hotels only capture meager amounts of waste water.

[Lordquinton]

9. They're also trying to accuire all the water rights in the state

They have some amazing stuff going on, but as always, there is an underside.

[Wellstone ruled]

12. The Vegas Water District lost their butts

in a suite brought by private individuals. Not going to happen anytime soon. Some of the land they purchased with water rights is now back on the market for sale with water rights.

[Lordquinton]

13. That is great to hear

Researched it a bit a couple years ago for a water management class, so my info is out of date, glad to hear they got hammered on that.

[Wellstone ruled]

14. Nevada's rural areas are dominated

by Tea Billies and hard core Rethugs. County Commissioners fall into that same camp. One single Rancher near Ely,Nevada pretty much ended the Water pipeline issue by pushing the issue into the Courts,and the rest is History. Rural Nevada is for the most part White with ancestry to the Pioneer Families and that in it's self will tell you why things are so backassward in Nevada.

[yuiyoshida]

10. Seems to me in a time of drought like this

its the small guy who is fined, (taking a shower too long) while the Really Rich, or Corporation can just pay the fine and still waste water. Its never going to happen where the Rich are hurting ,they just throw money at it, till it goes away.

[truedelphi]

16. And it is not only that the bigger firms will simply pay the fines -

Community groups, TV and radio stations encourage people to snitch on one another - "This neighbor ran his hose too long yesterday" etc.

So it has become hugely divisive.

Meanwhile the airports and theaters have toilets that automatically flush after every little pee a person stops to make, and sometimes the automatic flush occurs before the person even begins!

[yuiyoshida]

17. There are two standards for this country

one for the rich and corporations and one for whats left of the middle class and working poor. The working poor will always be bullied by the rich and corporations, and get away with murder? Sure they can, so long as they throw money at it, the system will never, ever be fair.

[KamaAina]

18. Even our office has one of those

as well as a toilet that doesn't always get it done on the first flush.