Fifteen facts about golf courses that will make you think twice about picking up that putter. 

Avid golfers look at a golf course and see lush, green fairways, rolling hills, and the summer sun reflecting off the dew. They feel the silence before an important shot and smell the crisp, verdant aroma of freshly shorn grass. But many environmentalists look at a golf course and see a giant ecological disaster. They see wasted water, pesticides, and displaced wildlife. They miss the natural landscape that was cleared in order to make room for the links, and they despair at a parking lot full of gas-wasting SUVs.

The golf industry has received harsh criticism for its lack of environmental stewardship, and the good news is that many golf course designers and superintendents are paying more attention to the environmental impacts of golf courses. More courses are now designed to feature native plants and grasses, especially those that are most pest-resistant and require the least amount of water. Increasingly, courses are irrigated with reclaimed water, taking the pressure off of municipal drinking water supplies. That’s all good news.

The bad news is that golf courses still wreak havoc on the environment, and as more people take up the sport and play golf regularly, the future’s full of even more courses vying for scarcer resources. The golf industry may be trying to change itself for the better, but as these facts show, it might not be changing fast enough.

• The United States is home to about 18,000 golf courses, about half the world total of 35,000.
• Golf generates about $49 billion per year for the American economy.
• It takes about 2.5 billion gallons of water to water the world’s golf courses each day.
• The UN estimates that 2.5 billion gallons of water per day would provide 4.7 billion people with clean drinking water.
• The average golf course is treated with 18 pounds of pesticide per acre per year.
• The average acre of agricultural land uses 2.7 pounds of pesticide.
• Only 29 percent of American golf courses participate in any formal environmental stewardship program.
• The average golf course in Thailand uses approximately 6,500 cubic meters of water per day, or about the same amount as is consumed daily by 60,000 villagers.
• According to the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, about 27 million people in the United States play golf regularly, which is less than 10 percent of the total population.
• There are approximately 2,244,512 square acres of golf courses in the United States, an area of land larger than the states of Rhode Island and Delaware combined.
• The size of golf courses is growing. Thanks to modern equipment, golfers hit the ball farther than they used to, resulting in newer courses being longer and wider than older ones.
• The average American golf course uses about 312,000 gallons of water per day. A desert course (such as one in Palm Springs or Las Vegas) can consume up to one million gallons of water per day.
• The average American family of four uses about 400 gallons of water per day, or one million gallons every 6.8 years.
• Las Vegas is home to more than 60 golf courses. The Palm Springs region has more than 125.
• According to a survey conducted by Golf Digest in 2008, 41 percent of golfers do not believe in climate change.

Image: lana_akaBADGRL

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Water generates most of our electricity but what are we doing to protect water?

It’s been called the source of the next great global conflict. More than oil or food, scarcity of water has been predicted to cause intense the most intense battles between nations.

We tend to think of water consumption in terms of the water we use at home for cooking, cleaning, and sanitation. According to the EPA, an average family of four uses about 400 gallons per day at home. Taking a shower? Two gallons per minute. Flushing a toilet uses 1.6 gallons per minute, although old toilets use up to four. Running the dishwasher? That uses between four and ten gallons per load (depending on the model of washer), which sounds like a lot until you realize that washing them by hand can drain up to twenty gallons per sink of dishes.

The conservation-minded meticulously turn off faucets while brushing teeth and install efficient appliances. We even admonish the kids that “If it’s yellow, let it mellow,” all in the name of preserving water. We install low-flow toilets and snivel at desert cities that use their water for irrigating golf courses and plush lawns. We do everything we can to not waste it.

But while Americans use more water for residential purposes than citizens of any other country, those 400 gallons don’t even tell the whole story. In order to sustain the average American lifestyle, it takes about 2,000 gallons of water per person, each and every day.

We never see the majority of that water. As a nation, our biggest water drain is the generation of electricity. About 42 percent of all the water used in the country goes toward producing thermoelectric power, creating steam and cooling generators. That’s the electricity that powers not only our houses, but also manufacturing and agriculture – even the power needed to pump water from its sources, which invariably grow farther and farther away as sprawl grows and water supplies shrink.

Irrigation eats up another 37 percent of our fresh water, and explains why California, Texas, and Florida – states with huge agricultural industries – are among the top water-consuming states in the country. Then there’s the industrial uses: factories, malls, schools, hospitals, and anywhere else that people make stuff, sell stuff, or buy stuff. After counting crops, livestock, mining, public needs and commercial use, less than 9 percent of the water consumed in the United States ever ends up in a house or in a glass.

At least 36 states are expected to face water shortages by the year 2013. Conservation efforts on the individual scale are welcome and important – in many cities, the overall rate of water consumption has stayed the same even as population has risen – but the only real way to conserve on a large scale is to address the water that facilitates our power and our food. It’s easy to look at fountains and golf courses in the desert and blame that waste and profligacy for our dwindling supplies of water, but the root problem is also our collective over-reliance on air conditioning, our lack of investment in public transportation, and our industrial food system.

Most municipal water systems keep prices as low as possible. In fact, in many places, they’re prohibited by law from turning a profit, and while that’s good for consumers’ budgets, it often camouflages the true cost of the retrieval, treatment, and transport of residential water. And the cost of items we purchase doesn’t reflect the true cost of what it took to produce the item – from the electricity for manufacturing to the fossil fuels for transport to the water used to support livestock.

The two best ways to save water are to use less electricity and to eat less non-local food, especially beef. Even a single commercial hamburger takes more than 600 gallons of water to produce. As growing cities and suburbs start fighting for ever-more-scarce sources of water, the way toward sustainability isn’t just by watering lawns at night – it’s by addressing everything we consume, from electricity to food to fast fashion to imported electronics. And ultimately, consuming less of it all.
Photos: Dottie Mae,  danperry.com, Steve Johnson

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The grass is always browner when officials have Los Angeles homeowners turning off their sprinklers during the sizzling days of summer.

Starting June 1, the L.A. Dept. of Water and Power imposed mandatory restrictions aimed at reducing the city’s water use by 15%. Residents were ordered to use their sprinklers only on Mondays and Thursdays or be slapped with higher utility bills.

Nearly two months later, it’s clear that suburban lawns are dying of thirst in the San Fernando Valley where folks are complying as temperatures climb past 100 degrees in July and August.

“If you look around, everyone’s lawns are drying up and dying and it looks terrible,” complains Cherie Sanders, a resident of an upscale gated community in Calabasas. “It’s not fair that we have to shut off the sprinklers when golf courses and parks are using so much water and don’t have to comply.”

Flooded with complaints by ratepayers who have yet to convert to drought-resistant succulents and wild grasses, the city is loosening the law. Parks, cemeteries, colleges, school districts, athletic fields and at least five golf courses have been given the green light to irrigate the grounds on any day of the week until the law can be rewritten.

Jon Kirk Mukri, general manager of the Dept. of Recreation and Parks, told the L.A. Times parks deserve special consideration because they serve entire communities. Apparently, parks were also showing signs of distress from the restrictions.

“I couldn’t just come up with a picnic basket and jump on your front lawn,” he said, adding his own North Hollywood lawn has turned brown. “As people’s lawns die, they’re going to need a refuge and we can provide that.”

The DWP’s Board of Commissioners is considering a proposal to alter its watering law for larger property owners (three acres or more to landscape) to hydrate more frequently, as long as they reduce their water use by 20%.

Mukri told the Times his agency has made strides in cutting consumption by 40% over the last two years and will continue installing drought-friendly irrigation systems. He notes that the parks being given a break, such as popular Griffith Park and five city golf courses, already use recycled water and are therefore allowed to water on a daily basis.

Other officials have said that if the greens die on the golf courses the replacement could be very costly.

But what the pretty lawns of the average homeowner?

“I think the city needs to follow its own rules,” said David Coffin, a member of the Westchester-Playa del Rey Neighborhood Council.

Coffin, who is also a candidate for state Assembly, said the city would take its conservation policies more seriously if it experienced their effects firsthand.

“As much as I hate to say it, the only way to force them to address the overall water situation is to let those things turn brown,” he said.

Last year, the DWP banned watering between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. and prohibited restaurants from serving water unless a customer requested a glass.

A council vote is not expected for a few weeks.

Image: paulhami

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