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Water
At a recent pre-tournament gathering at La Quinta Resort and Club, Davis Sezna made a simple case that less water should be used on golf courses in the Coachella Valley.
“It’s certainly a little strange to have it rain three or four days a year and have mud on your ball 300 days a year,” said Sezna, president of PGA West and La Quinta Resort.
Lush, deep green fairways are as much a part of the image of the desert as sunshine. That image has helped to propel home sales and tourism since the golf resort business began its dramatic growth in the 1950s.
That verdant wintertime grass is the result of affordable and available water, the lifeblood of the golf industry in the desert. But questions about how affordable and available that water will remain has desert golf course managers questioning just how green their fairways need to be.
An initiative at the La Quinta Resort’s Dunes and Mountain courses has seen the two courses reduce water usage by 25 percent in the last two years. The result is firmer, faster and drier courses.
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By MATT WEISER
McClatchy Newspapers
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — In a glassy conference room alongside a Sacramento River levee, a committee of 25 people struggled Thursday to do what Californians have never been able to do before: reach agreement on how to drink from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta without killing it.
After meeting for four years and spending $140 million, the committee drafting the Bay Delta Conservation Plan aimed Thursday to complete a “Nov. 18 draft” of their progress so far. This odd name for the document reflects the enormous stakes in crafting a plan that meets two goals: restoring the delta ecosystem and building a pair of tunnels or canal to ferry its water elsewhere.
It is not the final draft that water agencies and the Schwarzenegger administration wanted by this date, nor even the “working draft” they were prepared to settle for. It is enough of a draft, however, to keep environmental groups and delta residents in the room.
“It is a snapshot in time on where we’ve gotten to date,” said Karen Scarborough, undersecretary of the state’s Natural Resources Agency and chair of the steering committee. “We are not at the top yet, but we are at a very broad, stable ledge.”
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September 27, 2010
LAKE MEAD NATIONAL RECREATION AREA, Nev. — A once-unthinkable day is looming on the Colorado River.
Barring a sudden end to the Southwest’s 11-year drought, the distribution of the river’s dwindling bounty is likely to be reordered as early as next year because the flow of water cannot keep pace with the region’s demands.
For the first time, federal estimates issued in August indicate that Lake Mead, the heart of the lower Colorado basin’s water system — irrigating lettuce, onions and wheat in reclaimed corners of the Sonoran Desert, and lawns and golf courses from Las Vegas to Los Angeles — could drop below a crucial demarcation line of 1,075 feet.
If it does, that will set in motion a temporary distribution plan approved in 2007 by the seven states with claims to the river and by the federal Bureau of Reclamation, and water deliveries to Arizona and Nevada would be reduced.
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ENERGY: Hoover Dam could stop generating electricity as soon as 2013, officials fear
By ERIC WOLFF – ewolff@nctimes.com North County Times – Californian | Posted: Saturday, September 11, 2010 8:18 pm | | Print
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 After 75 years of steadily cranking out electricity for California, Arizona and Nevada, the mighty turbines of the Hoover Dam could cease turning as soon as 2013, if water levels in the lake that feeds the dam don't start to recover, say water and dam experts. Under pressure from the region’s growing population and years of drought, Lake Mead was down to 1,087 feet, a 54-year low, as of Wednesday.
If the lake loses 10 feet a year, as it has recently, it will soon reach 1,050 feet, the level below which the turbines can no longer run.
Those hydroelectric generators produce cheap electricity for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which is responsible for pumping water across the Colorado River Aqueduct to hydrate much of Southern California.
Without that power, Metropolitan’s costs to transport water will double or even triple, a district executive said.
That could result in a $10 to $20 a month increase in annual costs for residential customers, but could have greater impacts on business customers who use more water.
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By Mike Lee
, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, August 11, 2010 at 5 p.m.
The Division of Ratepayer Advocates, an independent consumer advocacy division of the California Public Utilities Commission, said Wednesday that it had formally challenged “massive” rate increases proposed by California American Water Co., an investor-owned utility.
Widely known as Cal Am, the company has requested a 40.7 percent revenue increase and rate increases of up to 40 percent for an estimated 630,000 customers in Los Angeles, Monterey, Sacramento, San Diego, Sonoma, and Ventura counties, according to the advocacy division. New rates would start in 2012.
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| by Pat Gross , director, Southwest Region |
Eliminating irrigation of tee banks can save large amounts of water
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Many golf courses throughout California suffered the effects of mandatory water cutbacks in 2009, and the same is true in 2010. As of June 1st, customers of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power are subject to Phase III water restrictions requiring a mandatory 15% reduction in water use as well as restrictions on days and times that water can be applied. Variances to the ordinance were granted to golf courses if they agreed to an additional 5% reduction. Some of the actions taken by golf courses as a result of the water restrictions included: Check out what California superintendents are doing to save water |
Attached is a copy of the text of amended Section 1353.8 of the Civil Code, relating to common interest developments as identified under ASSEMBLY BILL No. 1793. The bill would make it illegal to ban using native plants and/or artificial turf in “Common Interest Developments”, which will encompass Homeowners Associations.
The bill was originally introduced by Assembly Member Lori Saldana on February 10, 2010 and pertains to artificial turf.
We believe the content of the proposed bill may be of interest to all California turfgrass producers.
READ THE BILL HERE
SAN DIEGO – Mayor Jerry Sanders announced Tuesday the summer rules for San Diego residents for when and how often they can water their lawns.
Residents can water their lawns before 10 a.m. or after 6 p.m. three days a week from June through October, and for no more than 10 minutes at a time. The rules went into effect Tuesday.
Mandatory water-use restrictions were imposed last June after the City Council declared a “level 2” drought in San Diego, but the restrictions are different in summer months, compared to the rest of the year.
Between November and May, residents were prohibited from watering between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. and could only run their sprinklers for seven minutes at a time.
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