Bad and Best Management Practices

Two very different stories, one common message - water should never be taken for granted.

Assuming this Oklahoma mans story (Former worker claims wastewater illegally used on golf course) is true, I hope this golf course gets nailed bad. It's courses like this that give the rest of us a bad name.

From the article:

Bennar claims that for years untreated and inadequately treated wastewater has been periodically discharged into the Clinton-Sherman Reservoir and an adjacent creek flowing into Little Elk Creek, a source of drinking water for Washita County residents.

There are three sewage treatment lagoons in the area of the golf course. A permit authorizes wastewater to be applied to 44 acres of golf course land as long as certain rules are followed, records reveal. At issue is whether those rules were ignored.

Meanwhile in Arizona this course is struggling to hold on to it's water rights - Lookout Mountain Golf Club at the Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs forced to go for the 'green'

From the article:
"It was a decision made more about aesthetics than function or strategy," Richardson said. Trouble was, the nearest source of treated waste water was miles away, and bringing it to the course near 7th Street and Thunderbird was cost prohibitive.

Instead, the course simply tapped into the Phoenix drinking-water system to water the turf and supply three water hazards, two of which were not part of the original design. It was the kind of thinking that was common at the time, but ultimately created an image problem for the golf industry when water conservation became a priority.

Now, 23 years after Lookout Mountain opened, Richardson is back to give the course sort of an environmental makeover designed to save water and celebrate the desert setting. "At the time, there wasn't nearly as much concern about the use of water or the cost of water," Richardson said. "Now, we're in a reality where things have changed."