Moon Valley Country Club and Pointe Tapatio Lookout Mountain Golf Club have been using city drinking water to irrigate their golf courses since they were developed 60 years ago, but the city is now starting construction of a five-mile pipeline to provide both courses with untreated water. The switch, it is estimated, will lower the cost of water for Moon Valley, which had to file for bankruptcy a few years ago, from nearly $1 million a year to somewhere between $400,000 and $600,000.
While many golf courses across the country have started to use non-potable, untreated water to maintain their turf, a handful of courses in Phoenix, Ariz. are still watering from sources that also supply drinking water to the city, The Arizona Republic reported.
While the privately owned Moon Valley Country Club and Pointe Tapatio Lookout Mountain Golf Club in Phoenix have both been using drinking water since they were developed almost 60 years ago, The Republic reported, that will soon change.
After Phoenix Councilwoman Debra Stark was struck by the counterintuitive nature of taking drinking water from a desert community and using it to water the expansive fairways and greens of a golf course, The Republic reported, she proposed a water supply pipeline that would provide both courses with untreated water.
“They might be the last [courses] that are on potable or drinking water,” Stark said. “We live in a desert, so it’s probably better to keep that potable water for human consumption.”
The plans for the water line have already been designed, Stark said, and are awaiting approval from the city.
The roughly five-mile line will run up 19th Avenue, just west of the two courses, and turn below them at Thunderbird Road. In addition to serving Moon Valley and Lookout Mountain, The Republic reported, the line will also serve as a backup water source for the city-owned Cave Creek Golf Course, which typically uses well water.
“The nice thing about having the line as backup is that if something is wrong with the well, we won’t have to use drinking water,” Stark said.
Construction on the pipeline is expected to begin in late February, The Republic reported, and Stark said it shouldn’t take longer than a year to complete.
Potable water treatment isn’t cheap, The Republic reported. Tom McDonald, an attorney from the Phoenix law firm of Gammage & Burnham, who has worked with Moon Valley CC to get off of potable water, said the Moon Valley community went through a bankruptcy a few years ago, due largely in part to the high cost of water.
The new pipeline, McDonald noted, will utilize free water that would have sat unused otherwise.
“The water is coming from a Salt River Project and Central Arizona Project canal, part of the city’s access supply for tap water,” he said. “It’s water that the city wouldn’t find usable, so we’re building a line to get to that canal.”
The pipeline will help the city as a whole whil also drastically lowering the cost of water for Moon Valley, McDonald noted. When the community had to file bankruptcy, water bills were nearing $1 million a year. With this new pipeline, the property anticipates that its annual water bills will be somewhere between $400,000 and $600,000.
“It’s really going to help all of these communities,” McDonald said. “It’s something that the neighbors have supported. It’s a true public-private partnership.”
The cost of building the pipeline or details on how it would be financed wasn’t included in The Republic’s report.
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