Pipeline to Water Golf Courses in Drought-Stricken West Is US’ ‘Stupidest Project’

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u/WrongTurn1998 19d ago

Wait until you discover Arizona is commercially farming lettuce in its desert regions.

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u/Opcn 19d ago

Oh I know, and frequently object, but at least you can eat lettuce. Can’t eat the greens at a golf course.

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u/WrongTurn1998 19d ago

True but still stupid waste of resources.

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u/bdubb_dlux 19d ago

Why farm where there is no water? I’m genuinely curious.

I’m from Ohio and might be open to piping water from the Great Lakes to the Southwest but if I heard they were using it to water golf courses I would be pissed off.

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u/Little-Bears_11-2-16 19d ago

The Great Lakes states will never pipe their water to the south west and they absolutely should not

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u/BeerBrewerBakesBread 19d ago

The Great Lakes contain 21% of the worlds surface fresh water. It gonna get drank, sorry!!

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u/[deleted] 19d ago

[deleted]

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u/neckos 18d ago

This is a pretty dumb hill to die on.

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u/Opcn 17d ago

The draining of the Aral Sea has been without question one of the worst environmental disasters of Central Asia. Why would we want that for the great lakes?

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u/Little-Bears_11-2-16 18d ago

Not by them it wont. You want to drink it, you move here

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u/ItsLaterThanYouKnow 18d ago

There is water there though. In addition to the Colorado river, Phoenix was built at the confluence of two rivers in an area that the native peoples had long crisscrossed with irrigation canals for farming. Those rivers no longer really flow though, except when there’s heavy rain and they flood, because the rivers have been dammed in the mountains to create a whole lot of reservoirs.

Also, growing lettuce in AZ means that you can get multiple crops per year because of the amount of sun they get…as long as the farm has the water budget to make it work.

It’s not “desert” like the Sahara, it’s actually pretty lush desert with lots of plant life.

That said, growing alfalfa to send to China is fucking stupid

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u/Saraq_the_noob 19d ago

Adds a whole new meaning to food desert

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u/TransposingJons 19d ago

How about the alfalfa they grow to export to China? Apparently, China needs it to feed their cows.

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u/anaugle 19d ago

I used to work for Denver parks. They have a water quota for irrigation. That means they are given so many thousands of gallons per year and it all comes from the Western slopes (Denver is a high plains desert).

While it dries up many water sources half a state away, Denver uses as much water as they can in order to meet this quota, because it gets reduced if they demonstrate that they don’t need to use it. So every district and park uses as much as they can to keep their golf course their greenest.

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u/NextFrontier 19d ago

What a brilliant system honestly. Same thing with government funding. Totally messed up incentive structure, and we're surprised when the results aren't what we wanted

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u/thinkB4WeSpeak 19d ago

Golf courses in general or even just having lawns is a huge waste of resources. They also serve no purpose.

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u/bdubb_dlux 19d ago

My dog needs a target when she drops her dog eggs sir

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u/Yvaelle 19d ago

They need to pick a better sport for assholes who want to pretend they are rich. Or play golf in sand. Ball sticks where it lands. Put it on a tee again. Same sport, but easier.

Or give them a bigger ball like a softball.

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u/Dmav210 18d ago

They just need to get used to conditions like on the public courses I grew up playing in south Texas. Some “grass” for a fairway, some half decent greens, maybe some sand traps and a water feature or two (maybe a dried up creek bed) and all along every fairway and around every green is what my dad would call “Good Ol’ Fashioned Texas Dirt Trap”… just dried dirt hard as can be all over the fucking place. Impossible to hit a good shot off of, but you get tons of roll (usually in a random bouncing every-which-a-way kind of way).

Just as good/hard if not better than playing with a lush thick rough everywhere. Just not at all as pleasing to look at

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u/flatlanderdick 19d ago

I agree lawns, especially in the desert really serve no purpose other than an aesthetic appeal. Golf on the other hand brings in 25 Billion a year in North America and employs 150,000 people. In the Coachella valley, golf directly and indirectly contributes 1.1 Billion to the local economy. A pipeline solely for golf would be silly, but if the pipeline, like the canal system in Arizona, brought water for every use, it makes sense and might be worth it. Maybe Elon can drill a tunnel under the Rockies from the Mississippi to get water to the S.W.? Who knows what’s possible.

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u/saguarobird 19d ago

You started off so strong, what happened?! Haha

Jokes aside, that money doesn't circulate in the local economy, that's really not that many jobs, and the jobs are mostly low-wage without benefits. Golf has been hiding behind these stats for years while hoarding wealth and being elitist. We simply don't need this industry and we certainly should not prioritize it over having proper flows in the CO River to stabilize the ecology and protect species.

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u/flatlanderdick 19d ago

Yes for sure. The needs of the golf industry should never trump food supply and the future of people. I do argue that those 150,000 people sure enjoy a paycheque no matter how much it amounts to.

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u/saguarobird 19d ago edited 19d ago

I certainly wouldn't enjoy a paycheck if it didn't provide me a livable wage, especially if it also exposed me to herbicides/pesticides, heat, and air pollution. These jobs can be rerouted into more sustainable, safer jobs, our politicians just refuse to fund it. They'd rather..........go golfing 🥴

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u/NothingAggressive367 19d ago

If you paid people to grind up toddlers and eat them they'd "enjoy" a paycheck as well. That's not the only factor. Money is not inherently good.

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u/Opcn 19d ago

Have you met toddlers?

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u/Little_Lahey_Show 19d ago

I love eating on the job

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u/flatlanderdick 19d ago

Wow. Nothing aggressive?

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u/Opcn 19d ago

How many people do you think are employed in lawn care?

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u/nostalgichero 19d ago

More than the golf industry. A good landscaper knows how to work with the local plants and incorporate them into a well done yard.

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u/nostalgichero 19d ago

Those fine golf carnies could also work at the state fair, a bowling alley, a YMCA, a Gap retail store, or literally anywhere. Why not train them to install solar?

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u/Opcn 19d ago

There are other industries that deliver more and pollute less.

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u/nostalgichero 19d ago

Fuck you. Get your own water, you scrub. Fuck your golf. Fuck your water stealing. Sustain yourself, move, or die, but keep your filthy mitts away from my water basin before you ruin another ecosystem.

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u/Tibbaryllis2 19d ago

Alternate take, how much of the golf course needs to actually be watered grass? The tee and the green need a patch about the size of a house lawn and literally everything else can be a native drought tolerant short grass or clover. Hell then just free range goats on them to keep it short. Take a stroke and a drop for anything you can’t find.

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u/bdubb_dlux 19d ago

Fuck golf

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u/BeerBrewerBakesBread 19d ago

Golf courses need to DIE!!

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u/Enchanting_Smith 19d ago

who the fuck has time to play golf and in this heat

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u/NovaFantom 19d ago

This pipeline is a terrible idea. Lots of golf courses, if not all, use way too much water. However, I think golf is one of the sports around the globe that can be played (if it was more affordable) by damn near everyone.

I want this planet to be sustained, and stay healthy and beautiful. But we can’t eliminate things that are fun. Finding good replacements or alternatives are necessary.

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u/Opcn 18d ago

Golf is completely unaffordable to most people around the globe. There are lots of sports that are much more affordable. Frisbee gold for instance, since the most expensive thing about golf is watering, cutting, and fertilizing the grass so the ball will move across it appropriately.

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u/VCsVictorCharlie 19d ago

I am amazed at the attitudes I see expressed in this posting. People seem to be as hard as the trumpians. Unless you have a supermajority that ain't going to get it done.

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u/Opcn 19d ago

There is so far as I can see only one person supporting golfing

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u/ghostsintherafters 19d ago

There aren't sides in the planets collapse. We all die. Maybe start thinking outside your tiny box.

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u/technosaur 17d ago

Misleading clickbait head. It is not a golf course pipeline. The pipeline is absolutely a wasteful boondoggle that should be stopped. But not a "Pipeline to Water Golf Courses...."

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u/Xa_person1250 19d ago

It’s because of the specific climate dingus

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u/Opcn 19d ago

I’m sorry, I’m afraid I don’t understand. Did you intend for this to be a top level comment?

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u/Xa_person1250 8d ago

I’m sorry but if u know ur stuff u would know that death valley(responsible for the hottest temp) is in the same area

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u/Opcn 8d ago

Death Valley is in california, this pipeline is for Utah. Utah and california do not share a border.

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u/Xa_person1250 8d ago

Never said it was I just said it was in the same region

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u/Opcn 8d ago

Yes but death Valley and Utah are in the desert southwest, that doesn’t explain Your top level comment, and it seemed like a suggestion then I was somehow ignorant and that’s why I didn’t understand your top level comment.

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u/Xa_person1250 8d ago

Ok sorry but what “ top level “ comment

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u/Opcn 8d ago

It’s because of the specific climate dingus

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u/Xa_person1250 7d ago

Ok my bad I was wrong but at least ur not toxic