Residents pack town hall meeting Rancho Santa Fe golf course switches to recycled water

By Aaron Burgin RANCHO SANTA FE

— To keep the fairways and greens at The Farms Golf Course perfectly manicured, course personnel would irrigate the course with enough drinking water to satisfy about 500 families’ water needs for a year.

The effects of using that much water toward landscaping, as opposed to families’ drinking needs, is exacerbated during a drought like the one currently facing California, one of the most severe on record.

On April 30, the Olivenhain Municipal Water District and officials with The Farms course celebrated the end of the use of potable water at the 90-acre course and the decision to “go purple” — or use recycled water — for the course’s irrigation needs.

The timing, officials said, could not be better, as it comes on the heels of Gov. Jerry Brown mandating that water agencies cut water use by 25 percent.

“Few are more opportunely timed than this conversion today,” said Kim Thorner, the water district’s general manager, during Thursday morning’s valve-turning ceremony, which symbolizes the conversion. “This is an important step in fulfilling our goal of converting potable water to recycled water whenever possible.”

The Farms is the sixth of the eight golf courses in the water district’s service area to convert to