Water Education Foundation
This is just one post in the Weird & Wacky Water News Category
Click here to view all posts

Mesa, Arizona: catching a wave in the wrong direction?

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 30, 2007 at 7:40 am

From the New York Times opinion section:

The Atlanta metropolitan area has been hit by a drought so severe that Georgia’s governor has resorted to praying for rain. Lake Mead has been drying up so quickly that there is now a giant chalky ring around it.

Then there’s Mesa, Ariz., where voters this month overwhelmingly approved a water park called the Waveyard.

It is not a couple of water slides and a kiddie pool. Pictures from its Web site make parts of this sprawling water wonderland look like a surf break off Oahu, with tubular waves big enough to hide in, or a fish-dotted reef in the Bahamas, or a whitewater river in British Columbia.

In a region where yearly rainfall is about 8 inches, the Waveyard would use 50 million gallons of water on its first fill-up, then go through 60 million to 100 million gallons a year. About 50 million of those would be lost to evaporation, and 5 million to splashing.

Only as much water as an 18-hole golf course, it’s proponents say.

To read the full text of this editorial from the New York Times, click here.

To visit the website for The Waveyard, click here.

November 30, 2007 · Filed Under Weird & Wacky Water News

Comments

Leave a Reply