To Conserve or Not to Conserve

As I was driving by the golf course I live near one afternoon (just outside of the City of Tampa, FL), I saw rainbows forming as water droplets caught the sunlight--they were irrigating...it was 2:30pm, 95 degrees and sunny. I've also seen them watering at 8:30am when it's already 88 degrees. Keep in mind that Southwest FL has been in a drought for the past couple of years and the water management district (SWFWMD) has year-round watering restrictions in place that mandate twice-a-week watering and only from 6pm to 8am. For those who are unfamiliar, from 8am to 6pm are the times when evapotranspiration rates are highest, peaking from about noon to 3pm. This essentially means that if you irrigate during these times, a large percentage of the water will be evaporated before the plants (or your lawn) can absorb it--thus, water is wasted.

Now of course most golf courses here (and in many cities) use reclaimed water, which in Tampa (and most other cities) has no restrictions. There may be a utility that requires the same water restrictions for reclaimed as it does for potable water, but it seems that on a whole reclaimed water is exempt from watering restrictions. So the question I have is: Why doesn't reclaimed water receive the same watering restrictions as potable water? Just because water is being recycled and not being pulled from the original water source doesn't mean that it shouldn't be conserved.

Keep in mind that in order to produce energy you need water, and in order to treat and distribute water--you guessed it, you need energy. (This concept is known as the water-energy nexus, and I will save that discussion for a later date). Therefore conserving energy is conserving water and vice versa. And it takes energy to reclaim water--even though it isn't treated to potable quality--and to then distribute it again.

In my opinion, there needs to be a stronger water conservation ethic on a whole. That is, every type of water for any purpose should be conserved and used efficiently. Not only that, but if people see golf courses watering at noon and don't know that they are irrigating with reclaimed water that is exempt from watering restrictions, they may go back home and water their lawn thinking, "if their doing it, why can't I?"

Golf courses aren't the only guilty ones. I've seen sprinklers at the mall and the airport irrigating when there's a downpour and water is gushing down the street. Now that is due to improper irrigation systems and scheduling, but I'll leave that topic for another day...