The pools have got to go.
That’s the thought of many California homeowners four years into a drought so bad it makes Mars look like a rainforest. Spurned by the guilt of their once-glimmering pools using up precious water, some homeowners are going so far as to demolish their backyard pools entirely, and, naturally, there’s an industry ready to serve them.
From the L.A. Times:
[…] Although conservation isn’t always the top reason to get rid of a pool, demolition specialists say the drought is responsible for an increasing share of business inquiries. One company owner said he has a backlog of a dozen pool demolition jobs. Another said he expects to do 80 jobs this year, compared with about 30 in 2012.
“Someone may have had [pool demolition] in their minds for a number of years, but the drought is the trigger that pushes it forward,” said that owner, Dave Frisch, whose company is based in Orange. “Now they have a good reason to do it.”
But pool removal may actually be kind of useless — if the goal is water conservation, that is. The Times reports that an uncovered pool requires nearly as much water to maintain as a traditional lawn, but covering a pool’s surface cuts the water loss down significantly: A 500 square foot pool without a cover will have used 96,575 gallons after five years, while a covered pool will use 65,425 gallons. Surprisingly, covering your pool makes such a difference that it actually uses less water than drought-tolerant landscaping, according to the Times’ calculations.
And, of course, not all Californians give a shit about the fact that their state is dryer than a Starbucks black and white cookie — like in L.A., where people are still watering their goddamn lawns. But the good news is that nothing lasts forever in this world, including in-ground pools and, hopefully, drought.
