EarthGolf

The drought in Florida continues and the golf courses who aren’t following the rules are getting slapped with fines.

Failing to play by new watering rules could cost 13 South Florida golf courses cited for failing to meet drought-induced irrigation limits.

The South Florida Water Management District on Tuesday released the names of the golf courses, including nine in Palm Beach County and two in Broward County, that received citations ranging from $1,500 to $6,000.
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Because restrictions changed during April, from 15 percent reductions to 30 percent reductions, the district set a targeted cutback just over 24 percent and then issued citations to courses that failed to meet at least 90 percent of that standard.

In May, the district increased restrictions to 45 percent for courses in Broward and Palm Beach counties.

But before you shake the naughty finger at the golf courses, they’re but a fraction of the problem. In fact, they don’t even come close to using the amount of water that private citizens are putting down on their lawns. Private citizens use 10 times the amount of water on their lawns that golf courses use.

Golf courses used about 1.4 billion gallons of water in April, which was down from the usual 2.5 billion gallons of water during times without restrictions, Rodriguez said.

While golf courses are among the largest individual users of water, their total use is dwarfed by the amount of water residents dump on their lawns.

Golf courses typically claim about 3 percent of the water used each day in southeast Florida, according to the water management district. About 60 percent of the region’s water supply goes to public consumption, with about half of that used to irrigate landscaping.

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