When vandals destroyed a temporary dam holding back 50 million gallons of water earmarked for recharging groundwater, police in Fremont, California were quick to respond, but not because they were worried about ensuring local ne'er do wells paid restitution to replace the rubber structure. They responded because enough water to supply 500 homes for a year, according to the Alameda County Water District, went to waste as it was whisked off into San Francisco Bay.
The story from May 21 serves as a snapshot of just how serious officials in California are about conserving water, and how many questions remain moving ahead. And just like no two fingerprints are alike, it seems no two solutions for saving water are the same amid one of the worst droughts in the state's history.
Restrictions placed on the state's 411 urban water providers by the California Water Resources Control Board through an April 1 directive from Gov. Jerry Brown, range from 8 percent to 36 percent. The board has largely left it up to each district to achieve its quota any way it sees fit, with the end goal being a statewide 25 percent reduction in urban water use over the next year.
Restrictions placed on the state's 411 urban water providers by the California Water Resources Control Board through an April 1 directive from Gov. Jerry Brown, range from 8 percent to 36 percent...
The complexity of this issue illustrates the need for a solid foundation of relationships between the golf industry and government agencies and water providers. Such relationships are necessary so superintendents have the flexibility to responsibly manage water in a manner that works for them and their golf course rather than be held to a cookie-cutter solution handed down in seeming random fashion by a government agency or public utility.
"We're doing things that the golf industry has done in other states, and that is to get organized and learn how to work with governments," said Craig Kessler, director of governmental affairs for the Southern California Golf Association.
"It's up to individual water districts to interpret (drought restrictions), so we have to get in front of them."
Those types of relationships already exist in many other states as well as in some parts of California, but not everywhere. Standing as Exhibit A is the East Bay Municipal Utility District that serves customers to the east of San Francisco Bay.
Solutions for saving water on golf courses range from reducing irrigation in practice ranges, roughs and even fairways to replacing cool-season turf with drought-tolerant Bermudagrasses to constructing new catch ponds and wells, or expanding existing ones.
Converting turf to unmanaged, unirrigated space has been popular, especially in areas of Southern California where water districts have offered rebates of up to $1 per square foot.
It's clear this ride is only beginning for golf course superintendents, and it likely will be a long time before they will be able to disembark. Welcome to the new norm.
"Guys in this region are going to have to keep turf on the borderline," said Bob Zoller of Monterey Peninsula Country Club. "The course will still play well, and it won't really affect enjoyment of the game, but the course might not be as pretty as what people have become used to seeing."
To those outside California's borders, saving 25 percent might seem, on its face, a challenging-but-reasonable solution if it helps the greater good. If only things were that easy. The demands placed upon golf courses by individual water districts are just as fluid as the water they are ordered to conserve.
To those outside California's borders, saving 25 percent might seem, on its face, a challenging-but-reasonable solution if it helps the greater good. If only things were that easy...
To call the situation complex is an understatement of dramatic proportion.
The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is formed by the confluence of two of the state's largest rivers to create the largest estuary on the Pacific Coast. The Delta eventually co-mingles with the Pacific to create San Francisco Bay. It also supplies much of the surface water used to irrigate golf courses in Northern California. Although many water suppliers are pulling from the same well, so to speak, their methods of conservation vary.
To wit: In the San Jose area, where cutbacks of 20 percent have been ordered by the CWRCB, some courses have been ordered to reduce water use by as much as 25 percent, while others are having their surface water supply turned off completely, only to have it replaced by more expensive potable water - with no restrictions.
In Marin County, where cutbacks of 20 percent and 24 percent are in place, some courses on untreated surface water say they haven't been asked to curb their use by a single drop. Instead, water districts there are focused on reducing consumption of potable water supplies.
In central Alameda County east of Oakland, where mandated cutbacks range mostly from 8 to 28 percent, the story is much the same. Some golf courses have been affected modestly. Then there is the East Bay Municipal Utility District, which has been directed by the CWRCB to cut water use by 16 percent.
One of the largest water providers in California with more than 1.25 million customers, East Bay MUD has taken things a couple of steps further, requiring an overall savings of 20 percent from its customers, and imposing restrictions of 40 percent on some of its larger users, such as municipalities and golf courses. EBMUD also limits its customers to watering just two days per week.
These recent restrictions are only the beginning. Current restrictions are mandated at the state level only until June 1, 2016. No one knows what will come next. Do the restrictions in place now become the new baseline?
Many of the state's water providers say they have enough water to get through this year and next under current drought status. What happens five years down the road, or 10? At least one study has linked the drought to changes in ocean temperatures, and some scientists have indicated that the drought could last for another 30-50 years. Will superintendents next be required to save 10, 25 or 40 percent from what they are using now?
This isn't a problem reserved only for California. Cash-for-turf programs have popped up through the years in Nevada and Arizona, and further restrictions there and in places like Colorado and Texas are only a matter of time.
This much is clear, it's a problem that likely isn't going away soon. California is filled with superintendents who have been voluntarily conserving 10-20 percent and even more, and those who stay in front of their water purveyors and educate public stakeholders on their conservation efforts will always have the best chance for succeeding during such challenging times.
This is part of a multi-part series on golf and water in California.