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| SUNRAYS JUNE 2014
ONLINE:
SCTXCA.ORG
GOLF
Water Usage on Sun City Texas Golf Courses
Submitted by Ron Delaney, Director of Operations
With the summer upon us
and temperatures rising, the
issue of water usage quickly
becomes a hot topic. As the
City of Georgetown begins
increasing outdoor watering
restrictions, it is understand-
able to speculate on how we
continue to regularly water our
three golf courses.
Potable v.
Non-Potable
To address this issue, we must
first understand the difference
between potable and non-po-
table water.
Potable water
is drinkable—we use this
water in our homes to wash
our clothes, flush our toilets
and also to irrigate our home
lawns, trees and plants. All po-
table water in Sun City Texas
comes fromLake Georgetown,
and is processed at the Lake
GeorgetownWater Treatment
Plant.
Non-potable wa-
ter
is water that is collected
from our homes by way of the
sewer system, processed by a
waste water treatment facility
(WWTF), and made available
to purchase for irrigation to
facilities (such as those at Sun
City Texas) at a considerably
lower cost than potable water.
Sun City Texas only irrigates
its golf courses with non-po-
table water, which is taken
from six onsite retention ponds
supplied by non-potable water
purchased from the City of
Georgetown and water wells.
We are fortunate to have 10
wells fromwhich the CA pulls
water for use on the golf cours-
es and common areas. Five to
sixmonths out of the year (No-
vember to March, depending
on rainfall), the wells are the
sole source of the water used
for irrigation on the courses.
During the summer months—
the peak of water usage—the
CA must supplement well
water with purchased non-
potable water from the City
of Georgetown for use on the
golf courses. The non-potable
water is transferred from a
storage tank located near the
GeorgetownMunicipal Airport
and stored in Sun City Texas
within five retention ponds.
Increased
Conservation
For the last few years, the CA
Board of Directors, Staff, and
Advisory Committees, as well
as the developer, have been
at work to reduce total water
consumption and the amount
of money spent on water. By
looking at the accompanying
graphs, we can see that there
has been a steady downward
trend since 2011 in both wa-
ter usage and dollars spent
Continued on page 57
Golf Non-Potable Water Dollars Spent 2011-2013
Golf Non-Potable Water
Use
2011-2013
