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Xavier Bighaus of Colorado Christian University lines up his putt in the seventh hole on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, at Cedar Crest Golf Course in Dallas. Cedar Crest is one of the three public courses in Dallas that uses exclusively potable water for irrigation.<\/p>\n
Shafkat Anowar\/Staff Photographer<\/p>\n
With an average size of 150 acres, golf courses across the country require a lot of water to keep the greens, well, green.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
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But that need becomes particularly pronounced when an extreme drought<\/a> persists in North Texas.<\/p>\n One reader asked Curious Texas, \u201cWill Dallas move to the use of effluent water for golf courses, etc. amid the water crisis?\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n City of Dallas officials said this practice is already underway at some courses. That means the six courses operated by the city \u2013 Cedar Crest, Keeton Park, Luna Vista, Stevens Park,\u00a0Tenison Glen and Tenison Highlands \u2013 are not using only drinking water to keep their luscious putting greens alive.<\/p>\n First, a few definitions<\/p>\n It\u2019s probably worth defining some basic water terminology first.<\/p>\n Effluent water is treated wastewater, which can be reused in industrial processes to resupply groundwater sources or for irrigation, according to ProChem, a wastewater treatment company.<\/p>\n This is not exactly the same thing as non-potable water, which is any water not safe for human consumption. But effluent water is a common type of non-potable water.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n And, as one may have guessed, potable water is water fit for drinking.\u00a0<\/p>\n So how are these water types used on Dallas golf courses?\u00a0<\/p>\n There are dozens of golf courses across the D-FW metropolitan area, but only six operated by the City of Dallas.<\/p>\n The city only categorizes irrigation at these courses by whether the water is potable or not.\u00a0<\/p>\n Luna Vista and Tenison Highlands use non-potable water to keep the greens healthy, and Keeton Park uses a mixture of non-potable and potable water. The remaining courses \u2013 Cedar Crest, Stevens Park and Tenison Glen \u2013 all use exclusively potable water.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n