California pool industry: Our critics are all wet

The California Pool and Spa Association (CPSA) is fighting back against those who want to put water restrictions on pool owners because of the four-year-long drought that’s hit the state. The CPSA says more than 20 cities have imposed or are considering restricting water use for pools following Governor Jerry Brown’s mandate to reduce overall urban water usage by 25%. But the group calls that ill advised. Its “Let’s Pool Together” campaign argues that pools and spas are tied to tens of thousands of jobs and millions in economic output for California. And it claims a well-run pool uses less water per day than an irrigated lawn.

Yahoo Editor-in-Chief Andy Serwer finds the last point a bit of a head-scratcher.

“In other words, you shouldn’t water the lawn,” he says. “You should just rip the lawn out and put a pool in you’d be using less water?”

Yahoo Senior Columnist Michael Santoli says that’s not entirely the case, but it’s close.

“The third party folks are saying basically at best it uses the same amount of water as watering the area of the lawn that the pool covers,” he explains.

Santoli sees the logic in the group’s argument made by pool owners that they shouldn’t be singled out for special restrictions.

“The idea of not villainizing pools or new pools or filling or draining pools probably makes some kind of sense,” he notes. “Because as we all know, residential use is not really where the water problem is.”

Santoli adds the problem has much more to do with the billions of gallons a day used by the state’s farmers. It’s an issue that’s come about, according to Serwer, because of putting farms in places that normally wouldn’t be farmland.

“A lot of the agriculture in California is not naturally occurring,” he argues. “Those plants couldn’t grow there without that irrigation.”

And he wonders how long that can go on.

“The Colorado River, where this water comes from, is dried up,” he says. “It’s not sustainable, right?”

But even though agriculture is the big drain on water resources, Yahoo Finance’s Lauren Lyster adds residents are still feeling the pinch…including the elite.

“I was just in California and the lawns in Beverly Hills are starting to die,” she points out. “Even Beverly Hills has to cut back.”