A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
March 19, 2008
2. Supply
LANDSCAPING:
Golf course goes green by going brown -
AG SUPPLY ISSUES:
Editorial: 85,000 acre feet of water already lost to Delta smelt - Western Farm Press
LANDSCAPING:
Golf course goes green by going brown
By Jim Skeen, staff writer
PALMDALE - The Rancho Vista Golf Course is sporting a new look, with more than 30 acres of turf giving way to xeriscaping, a move that will save money and millions of gallons of water.
Facing rising water costs, owner R. Gregg Anderson is having a work crew convert 32 acres of the 120-acre course from turf to xeriscaping with about 200 drought-tolerant plants. The move will save about 50 million gallons of water annually and will cut the watering bill by roughly $60,000 to $70,000, said Sean Moore, course superintendent.
"It was either raise fees or do something on our own. We didn't want to raise fees,"
Facing its own drought issues, the Southern Nevada Water Authority is offering incentives to residents and businesses for replacing grass with xeriscaping.
Twenty-four golf courses in the
The Southern Nevada Water Authority said course officials have told them there is renewed interest by golfers in the courses and speed of play has improved because errant golf balls are easier to find.
"I presented it to Gregg and said go for it,"
Work began in November and is expected to be completed April 1. The work is being done in-house by the course's maintenance crew at a cost of approximately $52,000.
The savings on the water bill should pay for the work within a year,
The project involved the removal of 180 sprinklers. Other sprinklers were converted from full-circle spray to half-circle. Rather than having the turf hauled off, the maintenance crew chopped it up and buried it on the course.
Other courses have dealt with rising water costs and shortages by simply turning off irrigation. That results in uneven playing surfaces,
"This is more planned," he said.
The dirt areas are covered with decomposed granite, which serves as a cap to keep dust down.
The new surface is hard on clubs,
Golfers might want to put an extra 7-iron in the bags to deal with balls that land on the hard surface.
Golfers' reaction to the work has been positive,
"About 90% love it," he said. "Everybody was ready for a change."
While the landscaping work was being done, the work crew also redid three of the tee boxes, which has lengthened the course by approximately 130 yards.
During the conversion, holes occasionally had to be shortened but all have been kept open.
Work is also being done on other landscaping around the course. Some turf was removed from the entrance into the Cascades restaurant and plans have been created to redo grass areas of the parking lot.
Course officials also are looking at the possibility of converting another 15 acres of the course in the fall. #
http://www.avpress.com/n/18/0318_s17.hts
AG SUPPLY ISSUES:
Editorial: 85,000 acre feet of water already lost to Delta smelt
Western Farm Press – 3/18/08
One way to measure water quantity is by the acre foot. Like in one acre foot of water is the amount of water it takes to cover an acre one foot deep. Dumb way to measure water.
Another way to describe an acre foot of water is that it is 326,000 gallons. A little better, but still for most people that much water is difficult to comprehend. How many swimming pools will that much water fill?
According to all-knowing Google, there are 18,000 to 20,000 gallons of water in the average swimming pool.
Therefore, an acre foot of water will fill about 16 large pools. Don’t know that I have ever seen 16 pools in one place except by air and they look awfully small from an airplane to truly get an idea of how much water is an acre foot.
The measurement of water I like best is an acre foot of water equals the amount of water a household of four uses in a year. Not sure where that came from, but it has been around a long time in newspapers.
Assuming one family per one acre foot per year is accurate, let’s put it into perspective using the 85,000 acre feet not delivered this winter through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to protect the minnow lovingly referred to as the Delta smelt. It is the fish that grows to three inches, lives about a year, and cannot swim its way away from the big pumps that move
It is the same smelt that is eaten by bass introduced into the Delta by state game and fish officials. Same smelt that is minced through unscreened Delta irrigation pumps, and same smelt that tries to survive in sewage dumped into the Delta by cities, and in toxic chemicals illegally dumped into the same waterways. But those are other issues not germane to this commentary.
Most Californians would chortle at the 85,000 acre feet lost to the minnow so far. Farmers would just waste it anyway, they’d say.
Let’s put the issue in a more neighborly perspective. Get it away from agriculture and put it in a Bay Area neighborhood or a
Let’s say that 85,000 acre feet the federal district judge says was earmarked for fish was somehow specifically for residential customers.
Wonder what would happen if a state bureaucrat went through California neighborhoods, selected 85,000 homes, and went up to the door and said:
“Excuse me. Here is a picture of the endangered Delta smelt a judge has said Californians must save. We are cutting off your water supply for a month to save this fish. Thank you and have a nice day.”
Bet there would be more than a few black and white CHP cars following that state bureaucrat on his appointed rounds.
It will never come to that. Instead, the water did not get into storage and likely will not be delivered to farmers who grow food to feed the families in those 85,000 homes. However, no one will go hungry so no one will care that a minnow is entitled to 85,000 acre feet of water and Californians are not. #
http://www.westernfarmpress.com/news/delta-smelt-0318/index.html
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