Typically detailed, thoughtful John Fleck piece on water consumption in California…and Palm Springs.
A new report compiled by California’s Department of Water Resources (pdf) puts the Desert Water Agency’s consumption at 736 gallons per person per day. Here in Albuquerque, we’re at 150. Compare that to, say, Sydney, Australia, which is down to 83.
The Desert Water Agency number is part of the first phase of California’s “20 by 20“, an attempt to get water agencies to cut per capita use 20 percent by 2020. I’m guessing the Desert Water Agency isn’t going to have to break much of a sweat to get down to 589 gallons per person per day.
I wonder how much of that water is going to golf courses? There's more than 130 public golf courses in the Coachella Valley surrounding Palm Springs, and almost as many private ones.
Kit Stolz 
At the time I left P.S. in 95 it was established news that the golf courses used just over 80% of the total water usage in the entire Coachella Valley. Yet the metered residential rate for water was twice the cost than for any business. (versa ie. Golf Clubs) They were trying to find a way to refill the natural aquafers. They set limits on home use, but not on business. We were sent “ways to landscape without water” pamphlets, how to get rid of lawns, and flower gardens, replaced with white gravel and cacti. Plumbing was required to restricted water pressure limits. I still have friends who own there and the situation has gotten worse on many levels.
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