Turning Desert Into an Aquatic Paradise

There was a time when shimmering backyard swimming pools, automatic sprinklers blasting miles of living Astroturf, and waterfalls outside every country club entrance were enough for those turning deserts into oases.

Talk about a drop in the bucket.

The desert resort area is taking Southern California’s long-standing habit of creating waterfront property in once arid lands to creative new heights--or watery depths as the case may be.

This summer, the Rancho Mirage City Council unanimously approved a river along Bob Hope Drive. There are eight golf courses under construction across the Coachella Valley, all sporting multiple streams, waterfalls and lakes.

On the valley’s eastern edge, there are plans for an Indio housing development that include three skinny water ski lakes and a resort with a larger lake for wakeboarding, kayaking and canoeing. Also in Indio, developers are finishing a 42-acre lake that will be filled next month.

“On this lake, you’ll be able to run a full-blown, 325-horsepower, fuel-injected competition speedboat, wakeboard, airchair and take the kids tubing,” said Kevin Loder, one of the developers of the new ShadowLake Estates lake. The airchair, a sort of armchair version of water-skiing, is expected to be popular with the retirement set.

Even homeowners have upped their idea of aquatic splendor. They are no longer content with cherubs spouting streams through stony lips; many backyard projects now run six figures.

Mirage Water Features in Palm Desert designed one $450,000 residential oasis complete with waterfalls and floating granite balls. Another homeowner hired the company to put in a giant koi pond that encircled a house like a moat.

“Who would ever have thought we’d be doing multiple waterfalls for a backyard?” said co-owner Dave Rogers, who is booked solid for the next year. “There’s just so much money here.”

There’s also water, albeit underground. Palm Springs and the rest of the Coachella Valley sit atop a vast aquifer containing 39 million gallons of water. The valley uses the underground lake for drinking water and trades its share of state water to obtain Colorado River water for use on farms, golf courses and now recreational bodies of water.

During California’s drought earlier this decade, while residents elsewhere replaced lawns with cactus and recycled bathwater to use on potted plants, the desert’s 100 golf courses remained well-watered.

“They see all this green and don’t understand. Some people who have moved to the desert from areas where they were practicing water conservation see large lakes and think it’s unreasonable,” said Owen McCook, assistant general manager of the Coachella Valley Water District.

McCook said the district probably will approve permits for the Indio lakes with the agreement that agriculture needs come first.

“It would be difficult to tell someone growing carrots that they would get less water because of a ski lake,” he said. “We have plenty of water. The only thing is, we see the level dropping and we don’t want it to get down too far.”

Loder considers utilizing Colorado River water for his big-enough-for-10-speedboats lake as the “highest and best use of low-cost water.” He said the lake at ShadowLake will do double duty as an irrigation reservoir.

He said he has received down payments on 36 of 48 private lakeside lots priced at $300,000 each. The lots are within 500 feet of the San Andreas fault.

Bob Roark, project coordinator for Indian Lakes, said he has 100 people on a waiting list for lots in the development with four lakes. The project goes to Indio’s Planning Commission in January. If it’s approved, there would be three ski lakes with a jump and slalom surrounded by half-acre lots priced at $200,000 each.

Roark said a fourth lake connected to a resort could be a community asset, providing a place for school water ski teams to train. “Think of it: a COD [College of the Desert] champion water ski team. Isn’t it a kick?” he said with a laugh.

The river in Rancho Mirage will be pumped through a piece of property known as the golden triangle. It is bounded by California 111, the valley’s main artery; Bob Hope Drive and the lawns and lakes of Marriott’s Rancho Las Palmas Resort. The city owned the property for 10 years but found that it didn’t attract the kind of development desired by a town that calls itself “Playground of the Presidents.”

Now developer Jerry Snyder is attracting businesses such as Borders Books and Edwards Cinemas with plans for a river walk that include waterfalls and a tropical oasis. But he said the water needed for the river is no more than for most desert water features.

“There’s more water on the 18th hole at Morningside. I should know. I’ve hit enough balls in there,” said Snyder, a part-time resident of that Rancho Mirage country club. “The only difference is that this is moving water.”

But how many koi ponds, river walks, ski lakes, waterfalls and kayaking opportunities can a desert support and still remain a desert?

Dan Cayan, a researcher at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography’s Climate Research Institute in La Jolla, said the water projects likely will not alter the valley’s dry heat because they are a small factor compared to the surrounding mountains, which wring the moisture from the air.

But Kevin Trenberth, head climate analyst at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., said the extra water has made small changes in the desert climate.

“There is documented evidence showing that there is a reverse heat island effect in Palm Springs. Palm Springs is cooler than surrounding areas. It is also more moist.”

“Heat island” usually refers to the warmer temperatures that the concrete jungle of a city creates compared with the countryside.

“The thing that clearly is happening in this case is moisture is being pumped and evaporating,” Trenberth said.

He said it seems inappropriate to use water to transform the desert into a tropical paradise when there are so many demands on Colorado River water. “It seems missing a piece of the big picture,” he said.

But Loder, who expects to be water-skiing in the desert next spring, sees water projects as a shot at fun-in-the-sun perfection.

“We have a warm, sunny climate. People have a natural affinity for water,” he said. “Combine both and you have the perfect environment.”