In October, a six-month revocable permit for using the line, which has been idle since 1997, was issued to Foothills Golf Group, which operates the Phoenix, Ariz. course. But evaluation is still underway and a new well might have to be drilled to tap into the pipeline as a long-term solution. The cost of evaluation alone is estimated at $500,000, but it could still pay off for the club, which now pays $600,000 a year to the city for water and is facing a 25 percent rate increase.
Foothills Golf Group, the course owners of Club West Golf Club in the Ahwatukee section of Phoenix, Ariz., is nearing a determination of whether it will be feasible to create a new source of irrigation water for the course—and reduce the cost of purchasing $600,000 in potable water from the city for that purpose—by linking an abandoned effluent water pipeline to a well belonging to the Foothills Homeowners Association (HOA), the Arizona Republic reported.
The idea was first discussed at a meeting of the Ahwatukee Board of Management in July, the Republic reported, and then in October, the Phoenix City Council approved issuing a six-month revocable permit to use the abandoned line to Foothills Golf Group.
City potable water has been the Club West course’s water source at about $600,000 per year, with a 25 percent rate increase due at the end of the six months, the Republic reported. Well water pumped through the abandoned pipeline could drop Club West’s water expense to about a sixth of that cost, it was reported.
At issue, however, is whether the abandoned city pipelines are intact, because they have been been out of use since 1997. “If it works,” Terry Duggan, President of Foothills Golf Group told the Republic, “it will be one of the lower-cost water sources to allow Club West to remain feasible.” Water, Duggan confirmed, is the largest single-operating expense for the course.
Foothills Golf Group, which last May closed the Ahwatukee Lakes Golf Club and has a purchase contract in escrow on the property from Pulte Homes, is now reviewing a bid to provide a test of the line that would run four miles from the Foothills HOA well to Club West, the Republic reported. If there are any leaks, a consulting engineer would determine the cost to repair the line. The cost of the evaluation process was estimated at $500,000, the Republic reported.
Even at that, Foothills management would consider repairing and operating the pipeline a worthwhile investment if it could recoup all costs in five years, it was noted.
An added challenge comes from the fact that the Foothills HOA’s well went out of service in early December and the pump was pulled, the Republic reported. There are plans to drill a deeper replacement well, and Duggan said the golf-course owners would be willing to pay the cost of drilling if use of the pipeline for watering the Club West course is found to be feasible.
Foothills Golf Group must still also get the Foothills HOA’s approval to use the well, the Republic reported. The well supplies water to lakes in the Foothills community and is not a source of drinking water, it was noted; Foothills homes and businesses are on the Phoenix system for potable water.
From 1991 through 1997, Club West got effluent water through the pipelines of the now-demolished Seventh Avenue Waste Reclamation facility, the Republic noted.
A decision on the new pipeline link must be made by the end of April, the Republic reported, when the six-month permit from the city will expire.
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