US water parks stricken by drought attempt to conserve a dwindling resource

California and the American south-west are suffering the worst drought in a generation. But despite consumers and businesses being urged to drastically cut their water usage, water parks requiring large volumes of H₂0 to operate rides and slides continue to open their gates to thrill-seeking hydrophiles. How is this possible?

Some solutions are neither environmentally nor economically sustainable. Last summer’s drought restrictions in Wichita Falls, Texas, for example, forced the Castaway Cove attraction to truck in 9,000 gallons of water a day to stay afloat.

The Seaworld and Aquatica water park in San Antonio, however, has successfully weathered the storm – or lack of it – for the past two and half years of drought in the city. Operators of the park, also in Texas, claim their ongoing conservation efforts mean they were well prepared for drought restrictions long before they were enforced. From using condensate water collected from air conditioning to power ornamental fountains to minimising loss through evaporation by replacing a pool’s old canvas cover with a more efficient aluminium roof, the park prides itself on its innovative conservation methods.

Scooter Mangold, Seaworld and Aquatica’s vice president of general services, says they are able to capture roughly 162 gallons of condensate water an hour from just one building’s air con system. Their forward thinking, he adds, also protected the business from any public backlash resulting from tight limitations on water use. During a drought emergency, customers will inevitably ask: “How can a water park stay open when I’m not even allowed to hose my lawn?” It’s therefore important to publicise the company’s sustainable practices, explains Mangold.

“Educating the public about our conservation efforts is very important,” claims Mangold. “The work we do has always been behind the scenes, but now we are changing our approach, making visitors aware of the different innovations used to save water throughout the park to inspire our guests to make a change themselves after they have left.”

Thirsty service sector

Eric Hansen, director of development services for Hotel and Leisure Advisors – a US-based feasibility and market analysis company specialising in the water park sector – believes water parks need to be as responsive as possible to drought emergencies. If the authorities declare an emergency, water parks must clearly show what direct action they are going to take to tackle the event.

They should also be realistic about the size of a park’s water footprint – customers may be surprised to discover it is far smaller than they originally imagined. He claims restaurants and hotels waste far more water through catering and laundry services. Because of the huge costs involved, conservation is an essential design principle when developing any water park.

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“The key issue is to understand the difference between water use and consumption,” Hansen explains. “A water park is a very heavy water user, but that doesn’t mean every drop is going down the drain after someone has swum in it. It’s a process of reclamation, where a significant amount of the water is reused.

“When we talk about water consumption in a park, we are talking about that portion of water that is put back into the sewer and not reclaimed again.”

Designing solutions

The main source of loss in a water park is backwash – running water backwards through the filter to clean it out. Traditional sand filters consume 1,500 gallons of water a day, but new filters such as the Defender have reduced consumption to 450 gallons per month.

A filtration system by Creative Water Solutions, which uses sphagnum moss to inhibit the formation of organic contamination and accelerate its removal, means that parks do not have to backwash filters so often and promises to reduce the amount of chemicals needed to clean water by 90%. The company’s chief executive and co-founder, David Knighton, adds that it has the potential to save up to 950,000 gallons a year and, because the moss can be farmed naturally, the product is one of the most sustainable options on the market.

Other causes of water loss, such as splashing, are less easy to solve. Jacob Tompkins, managing director of Waterwise, claims that design is key when trying to maximise conservation in a water park. But that isn’t restricted to the slides. He claims you can also use the landscape of the park to minimise losses – from looking at how you can support the way water flows across the site to how pools are positioned in relation to the direction of the sun and wind. You could even consider planting greenery to reduce wind flow across the park so any large amount of splashing from the curve of a slide isn’t lost by a strong gust.

“What you need is a holistic water audit,” he recommends. “Parks need to look at not only where they get the water from but how they dispose of it.”

Collaborating for conservation

There is an issue of sharing best practice, Tompkins adds. Water parks need to collaborate and cooperate better to ensure everyone involved in the process of developing an attraction is aware of the latest innovations in water conservation. Many of these can be incorporated into the design of the park during the initial planning stages, such as creating slides that reduce splashing.

Investing in water conservation, he says, will not only save the park money, it will increase footfall.

Tompkins says: “If you take care of these environmental aspects it will increase the general overall performance of the park. If you are constantly looking at how you can design your rides to minimise things like splash loss it means you are spending a lot of time looking at the rides, which increases safety and even enjoyability.

“It might well be that you save more water and as a result can increase the splashing where the customer drops. So instead of it leaking out, you have more to squirt on people.”

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