Lakes and Golf Courses in the Desert

It is almost a cliche, artificial lakes and golf courses in the desert. The developers tout them as icons of the outdoor leisure lifestyle, but they are vilified by the conservationists as wasteful and destructive of the environment. Which are they? In some areas, they have both been outlawed. In Tucson, Arizona water conservation has reached the level of a fanatical movement. In Scottsdale, the landscaping varies from neighborhood to neighborhood. Some have strictly enforced natural desert landscaping, in others, failing to maintain your lawn could cost you a homeowners association fine in the hundreds of dollars. However, the reality of water usage is often lost in the controversy. Here is a quote from Water, Growth and the Future of Agriculture by Grady Gammage, Jr. of the Morrison Institute and Gammage & Burnham.

A section of housing requires on average no more and often less water than the same section of land used to grow crops. So as we convert land to residential use, we use less water, and we explain this to citizens to calm their fears.

To give another perspective see this article in The Arizona Republic for January 3, 2005, "Farms swallowing most of Arizona's water" by Shaun McKinnon:

In an average year, Arizonans go through about 7.25 million acre-feet, or nearly 2.4 trillion gallons. Put a different way, that amount of water could support a residential population of nearly 30 million people.

Except it doesn't. It's supporting a population of 5.7 million - and a lot of farms, which use about 68 percent of the state's water.

Agriculture has always used the largest share of Arizona's water, producing cotton, citrus, lettuce, alfalfa and other products that add up to a $2.4 billion-a-year-industry. Farmers will argue that they have become more efficient and probably pay better attention to water use than the average homeowner.

The article goes on to note that "In Greater Phoenix, farms now use about 46 percent of the supply, down from two-thirds or more just 30 years ago. Industry - mostly power plants, sand and gravel operations, and golf courses - uses about 6 percent. The rest is residential, business and government - everything from Arizona State University's 50,000-student Tempe campus to your back yard."