What an environmental waste - huge water park planned for Arizona desert

[BushOut06]

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8T0UV800.htm

<snip>
ambitious project is in the works: A massive new water park that would offer surf-sized waves, snorkeling, scuba diving and kayaking -- all in a bone-dry region that gets just 8 inches of rain a year.

"It's about delivering a sport that's not typically available in an urban environment," said Richard Mladick, a Mesa real-estate developer who persuaded business leaders in suburban Mesa to support the proposal called the Waveyard.
...
No citizens groups overtly opposed the project, but its water usage may raise questions in the future as the growing Phoenix areas struggles to replenish its vast aquifer. Arizona has been in a drought for a decade, and rivers that feed Phoenix and surrounding communities experienced near-record low measurements this year.

"Water is a scarce and valued commodity," said Jim Holway, associate director of the Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University. Holway said the Phoenix area currently enjoys huge supplies of underground water. But it's tough to determine exactly how long communities can sustain their rate of water consumption, given that global warming may make the desert even drier.
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This seems an extravagant waste of valuable resources, bordering on criminally negligent.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. It uses less water than a golf course.

:shrug:

[unpossibles]

5. eh, as someone who doesn't like golf courses

that's not much of an argument for me.

:)

[Red Zelda]

2. Cool. Pump Lake Michigan there

[rodeodance]

6. hey, stay away!

[damntexdem]

3. Why can't they make sand surfing more popular? Or sand snorkeling?

How many houses will they need to prevent being built to offset this water usage?

;-)

[Warpy]

4. There's one here, too, but we get a generous 11 inches of annual rain.

I confess I'd feel a lot better about it if they'd put an inflatable building over the whole business to keep water loss from evaporation down.

Swimming pools in this city are pretty rare. They can lose two inches of water or more on a hot, dry day in late June or early July.

Even hot tubs here have solar covers for when they're not in use. Water is expensive in the desert.

[kestrel91316]

8. Apparently not expensive enough, judging from this water park.

[ThoughtCriminal]

7. Grass lawns, agriculture and golf

Are probably bigger wastes. It may be more environmentally sound than driving 400-500 miles to the beach or to the mountains for the same recreation.

[Auggie]

9. As a kid I would have been happy to have had a community pool

Besides water that's going to require a lot of fossil fuel to operate.

What happened to our values that we have to have artificially produced waves and whitewater?