How Country Clubs Address The Drought

Saving 19% on your water consumption is not an easy thing to do, but how about 30%? Whether they like it or not that’s the target for the “irrigation” customers of EBMUD, our water agency. No large fields in Lamorinda, no crops on the hills, but two country clubs, with acre of green grass consuming thousands of gallons a year, now with an objective of cutting the watering by 30%, in the middle of summer. May be soon the greens will be called the yellows.

The two clubs face a very different challenge. Orinda with Lake Cascade collects enough from rain and runoffs to water the golf course. The club has owned the lake since the 20s when it was created. Ebmud water is used for the club house, swimming pool, tennis, and fitness, which are commercial usage, submitted to “only” a 9% reduction. The Orinda Club has taken steps to meet that requirement by providing patrons with water on request only, by making time adjustments for cleaning golf carts and asking players to take shorter showers.

Last autumn, the Club had to exceptionally use EBMUD water for the grounds due to the weather conditions. “This year, we have adopted a conservative approach to our watering,” explains John Bether, Orinda Club’s Manager, “we have concerns for our lake that’s been stressed by two consecutive rainy seasons.” As a consequence, some of the grounds are let go brown. Bether doesn’t believe that the fareways and greens will be impacted, mostly the rough.

In Moraga, the ponds are used for irrigation, but the fraction is not very significant and most of the water comes from EBMUD. For Frank Melòn, MCC General Manager, the challenge is quite significant. “We have been proactive and have worked with EBMUD on water efficiency for years,” explains Melòn, “over the past 10 years, our consumption decreased by 38.9%.” This was achieved with, for example, the installation of a weather station that reads the evaporation rate of the grass and determines the amount a watering needed (testing the evapotranspiration). As a result, the club will be applying for an exemption. “Any irrigation customer who applies for an exemption needs to prove that they are already an efficient irrigator,” explains EBMUD Dave Langridge. Langridge is EBMUD’s conservation specialist, who works with Moraga Country Club and any large user who wishes to optimize their water usage techniques.

Even if the 30% objective is high, Melòn plans to try to reach it this year. For the future, he has even more ambitious plans. He is coming from hotter climates than Lamorinda, he worked golf courses in Southern California and in the Palm Spring desert for a combined 30 years. These more drastic water conditions gave him exposure to such techniques as tertiary treatment of wastewater. “This is a technique that’s been used for many years now and produces a water of superior quality,” explains the General Manager who is working with EBMUD and Central San on a tertiary water treatment plant for the Club. “We want to do the right thing for the community and the Bay Area,” explains Melòn. At this time, the project is in its feasibility phase. Linda Hu Supervisor of the Office of Water Recycling for EBMUD, is very interested in that possibility. She explains that other golf courses such as Gale Ranch in San Ramon Small use recycled water for their lawns. Their water comes from a near recycled water facility. There is not such thing for Moraga and the Country Club will have to build its own facility, the viability study will determine, among other aspects, if this is financially viable.