A decrease in wastewater means less watering at tony Peninsula golf courses.

At the world-class golf courses surrounding Del Monte Forest, the roughs are starting to look rougher.

Due to a decrease in wastewater coming out of Pebble Beach, Carmel and the community at the mouth of the Carmel River, all seven golf courses served by the Pebble Beach Community Services District (PBCSD) have been forced to cut back on watering, and further reductions loom if rains don’t come by late fall.

The PBCSD’s water supply, which serves courses such as Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill, is all recycled water – toilet and shower runoff cleaned at Carmel’s wastewater treatment plant and piped back to the district for irrigation.

Historically, the district received 1.5 to 1.8 million gallons per day from the plant, but that number dropped to 1.3 million in recent years and to 1.1 million in the past year.

“Over time, as the community has conserved water, our wastewater flows have dropped,” says PBCSD General Manager Mike Niccum. “We think it’s tied to the cost of water.”

Even though recycled water is a sustainable and ecologically sound water source, the drought’s impact on households and businesses has finally trickled down.

“When you’re in those higher tiers, a huge water bill gets your attention,” Niccum says. “The first thing people stop doing is watering outside, and then people start to take shorter showers.”

The district has also been hit by the drought more directly, as a record dry, warm winter led to record watering of the courses in December and January. That prevented the district’s Forest Lake Reservoir from filling up.

Mike Bowhay, general manager at the Monterey Peninsula Country Club, says if rains don’t come in early winter, desperate measures could include cutting off irrigation at practice and rough areas, as well as on the fairways of short par-three holes.

“We can’t conserve our way out of this problem,” Niccum says.