Op-Ed: Whitehead and Zubia Want Toilet-to-Tap. Our Golf Courses Stand in the Way

This week, Attorney General Kris Mayes said Arizona “probably has too many golf courses.” That comment landed hard in Scottsdale, where golf courses support our tourism economy, preserve open space, and protect residents’ quality of life.

Golf courses may also be a problem for Councilmember Solange Whitehead and her political apprentice Raoul Zubia. Both push Advanced Water Purification, or, as Zubia has called it, “toilet to tap.”

At a recent water work-study session, city water experts showed that Scottsdale doesn’t have nearly enough wastewater to make the AWP process work at scale because it’s already used to irrigate our golf courses.

Staff also demonstrated that AWP would cost 10 to 15 times more than safer options and would supply a fraction of our needs.

Scottsdale has a 100-year assured water supply and far more water than the city uses annually. Our city leads on conservation while making record investments to expand and diversify our water portfolio. Yet Whitehead and Zubia deny the facts shared by Scottsdale’s own water experts as they search for outside “experts” who will agree with their political ideology.

Solange Whitehead is a regular Mayes campaign donor. She has also voted to approve over 6,000 high-density apartments. Many residents see a pattern: favor density, treat golf courses as expendable, and free up wastewater for AWP. Look no further than the fight at Kierland, where developers are replacing a nine-hole golf course with more than 400 high-density units.

Would Whitehead and Zubia prefer to replace our golf courses with apartments so there would be enough wastewater to rationalize using AWP?

Whitehead and Zubia can put this concern to rest immediately by publicly condemning Attorney General Mayes’ comments. Anything less leaves residents wondering whose interests they actually serve.