Drought phases out water play feature at Palm Desert park

There are no age restrictions when it comes to paying the price for the ongoing California drought.

A water play feature at Joe Mann Park has been taken away from valley kids to help Palm Desert water conservation efforts.

It’s water fun that youngsters have enjoyed for more than a decade, but that fun has dried up right before the summer months begin.

The city of Palm Desert prides itself in being the pioneer for water conservation in the Coachella Valley, but its latest efforts took away a summer staple for kids.

“A couple years ago we realized that they’re heavy water users,” said Ryan Stendell, a city of Palm Desert senior management analyst. “So we went through as parts are failing, we’ve been removing them one by one.”

The “them” are water play features, and the lone one left in Palm Desert finally got a reason to get phased out.

The city of Palm Desert announced that in some locations, their water conservation measures would begin immediately and that rang true at Joe Mann park. Their water play feature was shut down Tuesday morning and officially sprayed its last drop.

“It’s time. they’re very heavy on the water use. This one is about 10 gallons per minute,” said Stendell.

Other options, like building a recyclable water structure, similar to the one in La Quinta Park, cost too much. Some price upwards of $50,000.

Palm Desert’s already invested in an aquatic center for water-fun purposes, but isn’t free to the public like the water play feature at Joe Mann park.

“In my opinion, the cost of the aquatic center is extremely low,” said Stendell. “If you count what it costs to get a family of four in there, it’s less than going to the movies with a couple. So while it does cost, it is not a very high cost,” he added.

And while the cost of water wasting got cut at Joe Mann park, the kids’ price for fun in the sun just got a lot hotter and much less refreshing this summer.