The soccer fields are finally being built after 11 years. The issue with the golf course has been the use of culinary water to water the courses. The golf fund has to purchase this water from the city. The Rose Park course alone spends $200,000 a year on culinary water. It is right next to the river and a wastewater treatment plant.
Murray City switched their golf park over to secondary water over 10 years ago. The mayor said he couldn't justify using culinary water for golf. Unfortunately Salt Lake City doesn't think that way.
Now the soccer fields are going to be in the same situation, only using a huge amount more. This will be at the expense of the taxpayers. The soccer leagues can only afford so much to rent the fields. But water at times is a scarce resource.
We fund the parks and also pay for our water. After 11 years you would have thought that they would have found a way to tap into secondary water for that huge complex. So when the runoff slows down and the reservoirs dry up, just think: they had 11 years and $22 million to come up with a solution, and they decided not to do it right the first time.
Margaret Holloway
Salt Lake City