Country Club Stigma Files: OC Water Reduction To End For CC's

Aaron Orlowski in the Orange County Register looks at the outrage over country clubs benefiting from rebate programs for turf reduction designed to save water.

So naturally, even if the point of the program is to save water, country clubs will no longer receive Metropolitan Water District dollars. Because they're country clubs.

The nearly $1.9 million payout for El Niguel Country Club, with its lush golf course tucked in a Laguna Niguel valley featuring more than 7,000 yards of terrain, three lakes and a rambling creek, was by far the highest rebate in Orange County. It accounted for more than 10 percent of the rebate money paid out to county homeowners and businesses.

El Niguel General Manager Eric Troll did not respond to messages seeking comment.

No other business in Orange County collected more than $1 million. The next highest was just over $500,000. The highest residential rebate here was about $32,000.

So they took advantage of the program and water was saved. But that wasn't enough...

Just a handful of country clubs getting massive payments is “exactly what we want our caps to avoid in the future,” Berg said. He added that the rebate program will likely come back in a different form.

“We have a very limited budget and we want to stretch that budget over as many people as possible. We don’t want to give the majority of money to just a few sites,” Berg said.

There are advantages to offering fewer, larger rebates, however. It takes less administrative time and money to process fewer applications, and a gallon of water saved is a gallon saved, regardless of where.

Unless it's a country club! Oy.