Should Gallup give up golf for water?

Empty golf carts wait in front of the Gallup Municipal Golf Course. [Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent]

By Kevin Killough
Staff writer

GALLUP — New Mexico is a prime destination for golfers. The sunshine, available land, and comfortable temperatures make for the ideal conditions for the sport. The state even has two courses in Golf Digest’s Greatest Public Course rating.

But besides good weather, golf also takes water — a lot of water. Gallup’s own golf course, which the city owns and operates, consumes about 191 million gallons a year. This accounts for about 14 percent of the city’s total water consumption.

Water is one of the scarcest resources and most pressing issues facing Gallup. No water, no city. We are currently faced with the possibility of running out within the next six years. There are many plans in the works to insure that the city has a water supply, but none of them involve reductions at the golf course. Is this game so important to justify spending 14 percent of a vital limited resource on it?

City Councilor Bill Nechero, who sits on the city’s golf committee, says that it’s more than just a game. It’s a matter of quality of life in the city.

“You need recreation,” Nachero says. “Golf is probably the fastest-growing sport in America.”

He also says that the golf course is important for attracting new residents and business. Major residential developments, he explains, build neighborhoods around golf courses. And one of the things business will look for when seeking locations is the availability golf courses.

Just how important golf is to the greater Gallup community is uncertain. Golf courses can certainly be a good attraction, but they often serve only a small portion of the population. Nechero is uncertain how many Gallup residents use the golf course, but the course currently has only 85 full-time members, who each pay between $230 and $460 for an annual membership.

In FY 2007, the course generated less than $180,000 in revenues, which is not a significant contribution to the city’s total. Though, if the course is attracting businesses and tourism, the economic impact may be higher than that. Even if it’s three times that, the city’s economy will be in ruins if it faces severe water shortages.

But Nechero points out that the water used in the course is not drinking water. The course is watered entirely with effluent water, which is not treated enough to be drinkable.

“As long as people keep flushing their toilets, there will be water for golf,” Nechero says.

The executive director of Gallup Joint Utilities, Lance Allgood, says that the water used on the course has no other use at this time.

“Right now, if it wasn’t being used on the golf course, it would just run down the Rio Puerco River,” Allgood says.

The city’s plan for water in the future includes adding additional treatment processes to affluent water so that it may be reused for drinking water. Allgood admits that, though the processes are not currently in place, if the effluent water going to the course were treated for drinking, Gallup would reduce its drain on the aquifer.

Despite the threat to the city’s water supply, as is the case in communities through out the state and the country, no one is willing to give up golf.

“It’s an important part of life in the world,” says Nechero.