Ad Hoc Water Conservation Committee Formed

Club Management and your Member Advisory Board of Governors have received several emails and calls regarding our water conservation efforts announced in September 2014 (Click Here to read) and the impact it has on your Courses. We hear your concerns and have established an Ad Hoc Water Conservation Committee to address the issues moving forward.

The purpose of this Committee will be to evaluate and review the decision making process for overseeding in the past, along with water conservation issues and how we should proceed going forward. 

The Committee is made up of MABG Members, Members at large, a Real Estate Broker and Club Management:

The key points from this initial meeting include:

• The Coachella Valley Water District (CVWD) water management plan states that golf courses in the Coachella valley need to reduce water consumption 10% by 2020 from the amounts used in 2010. Since the base year, 2010, was a very wet year, water consumption for that year was abnormally low. Yearly water consumption since 2010 through 2014 has been higher. Consequently, to meet the 2020 goal, aggregate golf course water usage needs to be reduced by 17% from current levels.


• PGA WEST uses 90% Canal Water and 10% Well Water to irrigate your Golf Courses (PGA WEST cannot use reclaimed water because the CVWD does not have the infrastructure to get reclaimed water to the eastern end of the Valley).


• In the first 4 months (Sept to Dec 2014) PGA WEST / La Quinta Resort and The Citrus Club has reduced water consumption by 15% based off historical averages with the limited overseed done this year. The 15% reduction is only for the 4 month period (Sept.- Dec.) and the percentage reduction is much lower on an annual basis. Even with the reductions we were able to achieve during 2014, we still must find ways to reduce water usage further over the next 5 years to meet our 2020 goal.
  
  
• New courses built in the Coachella Valley today, would only be allotted 4 acres of grass, per hole for a maximum of 72 acres. To put that into perspective, the Weiskopf Course has almost 175 acres of turf on it.


• Turf reduction is being reviewed for all PGA WEST Courses. Some of that may happen this summer with rebates from the CVWD through grants from the state. CVWD will be awarding rebates of $15,000 per acre of turf removed, up to $105,000 per course. On average, the rebate amount will only cover about 50% of the actual cost for the conversion.
  
  
• Management has instructed Dean Miller, Director of Agronomy to put any cost savings from water conservation back in to the Golf Courses.
  
  The next meeting of the Ad Hoc Water Conservation Committee will take place in March and at that point the Committee will form recommendations to be vetted through the Greens and Golf Operations Committees. This will allow for additional Member input. The final recommendations will go to the MABG Board and then passed on to Management. As progress is made, The Club and your MABG will send out announcements. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do about the decisions that were made for this season, but if the weather continues with these warmer temperatures, the Courses will green up quicker than normal.We appreciate your support while we work through this difficult time and assure you that we will be diligent in our efforts to do what is best for our Club, community and Members.