Re: ‘Twin Lakes Golf striving to attract golfers’ April 10, 2013. We living at Twin Lakes read with great amusement Kate Swanson, Twin Lakes Golf Course manager, state that the hill behind the golf course is granite. The golf course developer/investors want to put in a development on that hill, and likely wish it were granite, as they seem to be striving to attract golfers as well as buyers.
In fact, on Page 9 of Assessment Report 30658 entitled Geological Evaluations, Natural Rhyolite Pozzolan, Twin Lakes Area, Osoyoos Mining Division, BC., 2008, which can be found at http://aris.empr.gov.bc.ca/ArisReports/30658.PDF, we learned that “The Penticton Tertiary outlier ... In the Twin Lakes area ... phonolite, trachyte, andesite and basalt lava flows, tuff and breccia deposits... dacitic lava domes... the Skaha formation is a mainly chaotic landslide breccia...”
That is, the hill is comprised of unstable volcanic material. Witness the attempted development across the road from the Twin Lakes Golf Course (TLGC), where the hill, its soil and boulders are failing after pre-construction blasting, threatening existing homes below.
Swanson states that sustainable turf management is a priority. Upgrading carts to electric is a start, albeit far behind most other courses. Swanson didn’t mention a plan for sustainable water usage, grey water filtration, cutting grass at different lengths, or sowing grasses more adaptive to our desert conditions. TLGC stopped watering the rough, killing over 100 trees and creating a fire hazard in an unprotected fire zone.
If a fire starts in the rough and spreads, our homes are at risk as no fire departments will come to our aid here at Twin Lakes. When we drive by and see mature trees dying, aerial watering as I did mid-day recently, at 18 C, and water running down Twin Lakes Road, we know TLGC is not using sustainable practices.
We were also curious about the charity days being offered to “give back to the community.” After conversing with Swanson, we were left wondering to which community she was referring? Swanson told us that “due to privacy” she could not tell us which days are reserved for charity, or what those charities are, although she mentioned that one of them is dry grad. There are no charity days included on their online calendar. Swanson and her developer employer want us to believe that the hills are granite, that TLGC uses STM, and that they contribute to the community.
According to geologists, the hills are unstable volcanic material. TLGC has not upgraded their watering systems in nearly 10 years, nor the grasses or management techniques and they let young and mature trees die. Service to the community? Not to those of us nearby, who used to support the course. Very amusing indeed.
Verna Mumby
Twin Lakes