The golf course, under construction on Washington State University’s Pullman campus, is scheduled to open late in the summer of 2008 with the practice facility already open for Cougar golf teams and classes. The university is expanding its old nine-hole course to 18 holes.
Of keen interest to both sides were issues of water conservation and declining levels of the Grande Ronde Aquifer System. WSU officials presented a slide show explaining their efforts to not only conserve water for the golf course but to take the lead in water preservation in the Palouse. Citing water use statistics, they showed that WSU has reduced overall water consumption by over 200 million gallons per year since 1986.
Greg Royer, vice president for Business and Finance, announced that the sidelined $13 million wastewater reclamation project would again be listed as a priority in the next WSU biennial budget. Previous efforts to fund the project – which would allow WSU and the city to recycle 1.3 million gallons of treated effluent per day had been vetoed by Governor Locke in 2004.
“We are putting in the purple pipes and irrigation heads specified for reclaimed water use right now, so we can be ready to use it in the future,” said Keith Bloom, director of construction services and quality assurance in the WSU Department of Capital Planning and Development. Mel Taylor, executive director of real estate and external affairs, added, “Our long range plan is to run the course completely on reclaimed water get it out of the aquifer altogether.”
Though many community members applauded the speakers and praised the arrival of the golf course, others in the crowd were skeptical. One woman from the community argued the aquifer has been monitored for more than 40 years and reports show that water in the Palouse Basin aquifer is “insufficient to meet current demands.” The water is being withdrawn from the lower aquifer faster than it can naturally recharge which, she said “can only be described as water mining.” She chastised the WSU administration and regents for “unethical concern for a sustainable resource water for present and future generations.”
The 318-acre Palouse Ridge Golf Club is expected to use about 45 to 60 million gallons of water annually for irrigation. The old 106-acre golf course used up to 33 million gallons per year. Two areas preserved within the course Round Top and the Palouse Prairie will not be irrigated.
To view the WSU Powerpoint “Palouse Ridge Golf Club Status Report,” see online @: /Content/Documents/powerpoint/golfcoursepresentation_8-29.ppt
For more information about aquifers supplying the region, see the Palouse Basin Aquifer Committee website @ https://www.webs.uidaho.edu/pbac/
For a discussion of the Palouse Basin, with maps of the aquifer levels and the location of wells, see:
https://pwcn.org/palousewatersummit/presentations/PBWS2006_Bush_Hinds.pdf
