Waveyard will be in the middle of a desert.  The United States is in the midst of a drought.  Atlanta has a water crisis.  California recently experienced historic firestorms. Water is a scarce, natural resource.  Is this project really environmentally responsible? 

Plans for this project would not move forward without an environmentally sensitive and responsible strategy.  Waveyard will use approximately the same amount of water as an 18-hole golf course, of which there are more than 400 in the greater Phoenix area, or per acre about as much water as a soccer field.  So, the central question is really, “Is recreation a responsible use of water in an area with a finite water supply?”

So, is recreation a responsible use of water?

Absolutely.  A community’s recreational amenities and facilities are a key determinate in the quality of life for its residents. Whether surfing, kayaking, wakeboarding, rafting, soccer, baseball, playing golf, going to the beach, or just going for a walk, being outdoors in a safe environment is more important today than ever before. With so much focus on indoor activities, such as TV viewing, internet usage and gaming, communities need new and exciting outdoor recreation facilities, not to mention a place that will combat the obesity trend that is epidemic among our country’s youth. 

It is important to note that there is currently a golf course on the Waveyard property which will be replaced with Waveyard’s unique, higher demand uses while only incrementally increasing the property’s water consumption. Earlier this year, an independent analysis of Waveyard’s water usage was conducted by Rita Pearson Maguire; the longest serving director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources in the history of the state of Arizona. It was during Maguire’s term that Arizona wrote and adopted its current water use plan.  In her report, Maguire strongly emphasized that recreational water use has always been part of the state’s strategic management plan, and that Waveyard is consistent with the state’s conservation efforts.  In addition, the report notes that public recreational venues lessen the demand for lower capacity, more wasteful private uses like backyard swimming pools.

Are you saying that people should not have backyard swimming pools?

No, but when looking at the per capita water consumption of Waveyard verses a golf course, soccer field, public lake, or backyard swimming pool, Waveyard will use a fraction of the water of these other more intense uses.  For instance, an 18-hole golf course or soccer field uses approximately 3300 gallons of water per capita, whereas Waveyard is estimated to use as little as 32 gallons of water per capita.  The responsibility of owning a private swimming pool is extremely location-specific.   For instance, it is probably not the best time to be thinking about installing an Olympic-sized swimming pool in your backyard in Atlanta, but Mesa is very fortunate to have a stable, well-managed and abundant supply of water.

Specifically, where will the water you are using come from?

The water we are using will come from an on-site well.  It is not part of the city of Mesa’s potable water system and will not tax the city of Mesa’s water supply in any way. In fact, Waveyard will use only approximately 6% of the well’s pumping capacity.

So, it is ground water?

Yes.  It is ground water.  Waveyard will build its own on-site water treatment facility that will ensure that all swimmers will be swimming in water that is both clean and safe.

Isn’t removing ground water and depleting aquifers irresponsible and causing problems?

This is where it is helpful to understand the strategically selected location of Waveyard.   The property sits at the confluence of the 101 and 202 freeways in Mesa, Arizona.  It is across the street from Arizona State University and less than seven miles from Sky Harbor airport.  But most importantly, it sits in an area of intense water mounding.  This is a phenomenon that occurs when ground water gets trapped by underground geological formations forcing it to pool on the surface.

The ground water in the area of Waveyard is actually bubbling out of the ground?  That sounds almost too unbelievable to be true.

It is amazing, but that is exactly what is happening.  The ground water table adjacent to the Waveyard site has actually risen over the last decade, and there are numerous areas of standing water along the Salt River basin. This excess ground water is visible above the surface as well as plentiful in large subterranean deposits.  Waveyard will be tapping into these large naturally filtered deposits for its recreational water.  In addition, these areas of standing ground water are causing problems for Maricopa County, and they have strongly endorsed our use of a portion of this water. It is also important to note that Waveyard is required to secure recharge water credits to ensure that whatever quantity of water is removed from the ground is replenished.


Excess groundwater adjacent to the Waveyard site

Why would the ground water table rise in this area given the current drought?

The Salt River basin, adjacent to the project, is fed by a significant watershed.  Over the last twenty years, large amounts of farm land and orchards have been retired to build houses and commercial centers.  As these farms are converted to houses, they use significantly less water.  In addition, almost all of the farms used ground water to irrigate their crops, but the new houses receive their water from the various cities’ water supplies.  Most of the cities are part of the Central Arizona Project and don’t use ground water.  This has amounted to an incredible reduction in ground water usage and created the excess water that is mounding adjacent to the Waveyard site.

Is it true this ground water has an elevated level of arsenic?

Arsenic is a naturally occurring metal that is present in ground water throughout the world. The important thing to determine is the level of arsenic in any given body of ground water. The arsenic levels in the water near the Waveyard site are slightly above federal drinking water standards, but are well within the prescribed recreational water standards.  As a matter of fact, until 2006, this water would have qualified as drinking water.  For the most part, it is the same quality of water that most Americans grew up drinking, but due to recent changes in federal drinking water standards it no longer qualifies.  Regardless, it is still much cleaner than surfing in most oceans, rafting in most rivers and recreating in most bodies of water.  In addition, Waveyard is working with General Electric and numerous other organizations to install state-of-the-art, environmentally sensitive filtration, treatment and reclamation systems.

Even with a safe, available supply of water, is a water resort the best use for it?  Surfing, kayaking, rafting, wakeboarding, and scuba diving?  Why not football, soccer or softball fields -- or even another manufacturing facility?

The genesis of the Waveyard concept is in direct response to the explosive participation rates in action and adventure sports during the last decade. This is diametrically opposed to the significant decrease of many of the traditional team sports of baseball, basketball, and football.  By many estimates, baseball participation over the last 16 years has nosedived in excess of 40%, basketball by more than 22%, and football 29%. Despite this drop in participation, cities continue to build these facilities without stopping to consider what families and children really want to be doing.  There are already more than 400 golf courses in the greater Phoenix area, and yet private, multi-course communities are still being planned all over the valley.  Contrast this with the unique nature of the Waveyard experience which will deliver a wide range of healthy recreational opportunities that do not exist anywhere else in the state.

Waveyard will use about the same amount of water as a golf course, but don’t golf courses use reclaimed water?

Only about 60% of the golf courses in Arizona use reclaimed water.   But it is important to understand what reclaimed water is; it is water that has not gone through the final stages of filtration to bring it back up to drinking water standards.  Waveyard will not use filtered water either.  As a matter of fact, Waveyard will not tax the city of Mesa’s drinking water system in any way.  Waveyard’s water will come from an on-site well that, just like reclaimed water, would have to be treated to become drinking water.

It is also important to consider how golf courses use water.  Golf courses spray massive quantities of water into the air in order to irrigate vast amounts of grass.  While golf courses may utilize reclaimed water, as much as 60% of that water may be lost to evaporation on a daily basis. This is a very inefficient application method in Arizona’s dry climate that results in a much higher percentage of evaporation loss than Waveyard will experience.  In addition, Waveyard’s water will benefit a drastically greater number of people than a golf course or other use like an urban lake.  Waveyard will use approximately 32 gallons of water per person verses in excess of 3,000 gallons per person for a golf course.  We are also working with companies like GE’s Water Processes and Technologies division to deploy cutting-edge environmental methods and technologies that will allow us to recycle and conserve as much water as possible. Click here to view comparison per capita water usage charts for Waveyard.

Why is water usage such a major issue for Waveyard given the extensive number of golf courses planned in Arizona or the large recreational water users like Tempe Town Lake that were never even questioned?

Water usage will continue to be a major concern for future developments and it should beThis thought process demonstrates a shift toward earth stewardship that Waveyard strongly supports. Every golf course community, commercial development, residential subdivision, highway, or factory should be scrutinized in this same light. When people read headlines like “Massive Water Park to be Built in the Middle of the Arizona Desert” it is understandable that people would question the environmental responsibility of the project. The challenge is in educating people in regards to the facts of any given project.  The more people know about Waveyard, the more they support it, as was witnessed with the 65% voter support in a local election.

The obligation to protect natural resources and leave future generations better off than our own is a fundamental commitment of the Waveyard development.  This philosophy will further become a reality with Waveyard’s launch of Liquid Evolution, a technology company that will make available Waveyard’s water recreational technologies to private, resort, residential, and municipal developers so that other locations can benefit from what has been developed.

In summary, Waveyard is an urban in-fill project that was approved in a city-wide election.  It will replace an existing municipal golf course, and will not disturb a single acre of virgin Sonoran Desert while providing an estimated 7000 jobs.   This is exactly the kind of responsible growth that Arizona needs.