RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. – With four fundraisers and an awkward reconciliation with the House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, behind him, President Barack Obama returned to a beloved golf oasis here for a weekend getaway with friends.
This time, though, was different. A punishing drought has raised questions about whether such oases can survive, and about the president’s weekend here.
The vast green courses in the area are watered by a disappearing Colorado River and an underground aquifer that has fallen about 55 feet since 1970.
While environmentalists generally support the president, some grumbled that he needed to take up a new hobby or indulge it someplace else.
“President Obama needs to take a mulligan and rethink golfing in Palm Springs in the middle of a drought,” said Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth, using a golfing term that refers to a do-over after a bad shot. “It takes copious amounts of water to maintain a golf course, and it just sends the wrong message to the people of California just as they are being asked to cut back on water use.”
On April 1, Gov. Jerry Brown of California ordered a 25 percent statewide reduction in water consumption, and some places were forced to cut back even more. Some affluent towns may run out of water entirely, farmers have been forced to fallow thousands of acres, and state leaders like Brown have taken symbolic steps like letting the grass go brown at their houses.
Some people have even begun a social media campaign to shame neighbors who waste water and to put the spotlight on celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Barbra Streisand, whose mansions with their enormous lawns require huge amounts of water to maintain.
Amid this crisis, Air Force One banked out of a crystalline blue sky and landed in what boosters have long described as “America’s desert oasis.” Obama was driven to Sunnylands, the former Annenberg estate where political leaders and celebrities have come to rest and meet for decades.
Palm Springs has the highest concentration of golf courses in California, with 122 in the Coachella Valley, where Rancho Mirage and Palm Springs both sit, said Craig Kessler, government affairs director for the Southern California Golf Association.
Kessler said golf courses in the Coachella Valley were reducing their dependence on dwindling groundwater supplies, making the game more sustainable in the area. But courses are making those reductions in part by switching to water supplied by the Colorado River, which is also under stress.
Ed Osann, a senior policy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council’s water team, said the golf course industry in the Palm Springs region must do far more to reduce water consumption and switch to more sustainable water sources.
“We don’t advocate that any golfer stop playing golf because of the drought,” Osann said. “But drought or no drought, all landscape water use in California, including golf courses, needs to get more efficient.”