Imperial County receives a lubricous allotment from the Colorado River, but it is a better use than most of the claims to this water. The Central Arizona project, for instance, requires a coal plant to pump water uphill into a (even hotter) desert. Much as golf in the desert is a wasteful use of resources, golf courses generally pay market rate for their water and don't require federal subsidies to turn a profit. This is more than you can say for a lot of Colorado River water.
Navajo Generating Station, which was the largest coal-fired ppwer plant in the western U.S. and powered CAP pumping stations, closed in 2019 along with the accompanying coal mine.
Since this always comes up I feel obligated to point out golf courses don’t use near as much water as people think. They can use a lot of reclaimed and grey water for grass and ponds.
Gold courses are the equivalent of "welfare queens". They don't really matter much in the big picture but look bad and are often used for political purposes.
Which is hilarious because a real numbers look at Vegas’s water use and they’re a case study in near perfect water usage and conservation- yes, even with all their ridiculous pools.
It’s amazing what can be done with good planning and design.
Yeah but the point is they may “use” that much water, but not even close to that much is coming out of the rivers and reservoirs. Of course there may be some less sustainable golf courses which do use that much, and those should be fixed, don’t think many folks would debate you there.
