49 years of potable water to gated
Chaparral Pines golf course
It's no surprise anymore when the Payson Town Council does something reckless and irresponsible in the names of growth and elitism. But somebody has to at least mention the finer points of its decision Thursday to move ahead with plans to divert C.C. Cragin water via a special pipeline to water the Chaparral Pines golf course for a guaranteed 49 years in the face of a drought while pretending that: 1) Said water can be recovered from the ground, and 2) Said water is not potable even though you can drink it from a glass right out of the reservoir.
These are the simple truths your local newspaper will not reveal. In stark contrast, here is a letter to the editor from the June 11 edition of The Arizona Republic:
We must conserve water
I've lived in Arizona since 1964. Growing up, the message in school and elsewhere was that we live in a desert: Conserve water! With projected future growth, we will run out without making changes.
Ever wonder why our lawmakers let this topic fall on deaf ears? Why must they be reactive and not proactive?
I don't have answers, only logical suggestions to conserve, and that might be our best answer until we figure out a way to squeeze water from stone.
Why are private swimming pools still being built? Why does anyone still have a front lawn? Isn't irrigating property wasteful?
A lot of whys better get answered before we have to answer hows.
Bob Lopez
Glendale
We need to throw the bums who made this decision out of office. We need a newspaper that behaves like a newspaper instead of shilling for the mayor, the hospital and anything else that promotes its own self interests over the wellbeing of the community.
4 comments:
It's not "your" water, it belongs to the city. They then sell it to the residents and businesses. The golf course will pay for it just like every other business in the city with one big difference. They will pay close to a million dollars to install the pipeline, then give that pipeline to the city when completed. The college (if it ever shows) will benefit from that pipeline. I'm sure you don't have a problem with the kids getting some.
And yes even you can play golf there. You just have to pay for it just like you would at any other business.
You pay for meals at a restaurant, gas for your car, games at the bowling alley, etc.
And no, golf is not a 1%er sport. It cost more to enjoy a meal at some restaurants where (gasp) they get water from the city.
Or do you expect the
Thank you for your thoughts, but you completely ignore the fact that it is stupid to commit potable water to a golf course for 49 years in the Southwest in the middle of a drought. Which means a golf course is really not just another business. It's not quite the same as having a glass of water at a restaurant.
And how about the fact that the mayor presented this deal with deceit - claiming the water could be pumped back up and sold? Not to mention claiming that bypassing the treatment makes potable water somehow not potable? Remember, the treatment plate is not to purify the water, but to make it chemically compatible with groundwater.
And are you telling me if I drive up to the guard gate at Chaparral Pines without the secret password and tell them I have come to play golf they will let me through? Really?
Please respond to these issues and concerns. I will happily post what you have to say.
Jim Keyworth
Editor
Will all the water that is put on the golf course be recovered and used by the city? Probably not, but some one or something will use it.
Why is that different from just letting it sit in the lake or naturally flow downstream? As is sits or flows, it is absorbed into the ground and eventually pumped or evaporated to the atmosphere where the cycle begins again. It gets used by someone, somewhere, it just doesn't disappear.
I believe that the water still has to be treated, not just made compatible. I don't know if a city can distribute non chlorinated water-too many little nasties.
Even you can golf at Chaparral Pines or The Rim. You just have to buy a membership and pay dues...it's a business.
They even allow liberals.
It's called evapotranspiration, the process by which water in the ground is lost. In a 1991 paper titled "Evapotranspiration and Droughts" by Ronald L. Hansen for the U.S. Geological Survey, the author wrote:
"Estimates of average statewide evapotranspiration...range from about 40 percent...in the Northwest and Northeast to about 100 percent in the Southwest. During a drought, the significance of evapotranspiration is magnified, because evapotranspiration continues to deplete the limited remaining water supplies in lakes and streams and the soil."
I would hope that political persuasion (liberal or conservative) would have no effect on our acceptance of scientific fact. Watering golf courses anywhere in the Southwest with even potentially potable water is not wise policy. We need to be better stewards of the resources that are necessary for life.
Just because we were blessed with C.C. Cragin doesn't give us license to throw water away. That's a fact no rational human being can refute.
Golf is a game. Water is life.
Jim Keyworth
Editor
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