{"id":155755,"date":"2025-09-14T08:08:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T08:08:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/155755\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T08:08:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T08:08:21","slug":"billionaires-water-supply-cut-off-after-wasting-millions-filling-private-lake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/155755\/","title":{"rendered":"Billionaire\u2019s Water Supply Cut Off After Wasting Millions Filling Private Lake"},"content":{"rendered":"

A billionaire considered to be one of the most powerful people on Wall Street has infuriated neighbors by transporting 30 tankers of water a day to his $80 million estate in the U.K.<\/p>\n

Stephen Schwarzman, 78, has been shipping vast quantities of water to his 2,500-acre estate in Wiltshire, in order to fill a nine-million-gallon lake located on the premises.<\/p>\n

However, his selfish actions, which occur while parts of the U.K. are facing restrictions on water due to a drought, have infuriated both locals and water bosses, who are aghast at the billionaire\u2019s wastefulness.<\/p>\n

\"Blackstone<\/p>\n

Blackstone founder Stephen Schwarzman is one of the most powerful people on Wall Street. \/ Jemal Countess \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

After spending months tracking the seemingly never-ending water shipments, resident Lawrence Lask organized a network of neighbors who took it in turns to follow the water tankers and film their movements, which ended up leading them to Schwarzman\u2019s estate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think there have been over 30 tankers a day, seven days a week,\u201d Lask told the BBC<\/a>, who said he has been waking up at 3 a.m. each day to track the vast water shipments.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think they might be using the water to fill the lake,\u201d said tanker watchman Trevor Marshall.<\/p>\n

\"Schwarzman<\/p>\n

Schwarzman purchased the sprawling Conholt Park estate for around $80 million in 2022 \/ X<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time we\u2019re on a hosepipe ban\u2014it\u2019s incredibly outrageous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Southern Water managing director Tim McMahon said he was \u201cappalled by this use of water,\u201d and immediately banned Schwarzman\u2019s use of it, which his estate has so far complied with.<\/p>\n

Schwarzman, one of the world\u2019s wealthiest individuals, has an estimated net worth of around $30 billion. The American tycoon made his fortune by founding Blackstone, one of the biggest investment firms in the world.<\/p>\n

The billionaire has been refurbishing the 17th-century Conholt Park estate since purchasing it for an estimated $80 million in 2022, which has included building an entire lake from scratch, covering around three acres.<\/p>\n

A Blackstone spokesman claimed they had acquired the water \u201clegally,\u201d telling the Daily Mail, \u201cThe new owners of Conholt Park are committed to the restoration and preservation of a landmark estate of national heritage importance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe water has been sourced through licensed providers responsible for the lawful and proper extraction and delivery. Water has been sourced from multiple locations, largely outside the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

They added, \u201cFollowing yesterday\u2019s request from Southern Water that water is not directed to the lake, the Estate has readjusted the supply of water accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Schwarzman<\/p>\n

Schwarzman has insisted the water was acquired <\/p>\n

In a previous statement, a different spokesman said: \u201cThe suggestion that the new owners of Conholt Park violated water regulations is false and misleading.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have taken extraordinary care to ensure the restoration of the property complies with all local laws and regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n

It follows concerns from locals earlier in the year that Schwarzman had been using a borehole to extract groundwater from the lake, which could have potentially led to water shortages in the area.<\/p>\n

Despite vigorously denying that they were drilling for groundwater, Schwarzman\u2019s estate was forced to concede that on a \u201cvery limited\u201d number of occasions, water sourced from a borehole had entered the lake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A billionaire considered to be one of the most powerful people on Wall Street has infuriated neighbors by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79,95223,95222,95224],"class_list":{"0":"post-155755","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-southern-water","11":"tag-stephen-schwarzman","12":"tag-water-tankers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}