Waterslide park in Albuquerque?

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Permalink Reply by Jesstagirl on May 8, 2008 at 10:21am

We used to have The Beach Waterpark on Montgomery and I-25. It was a sad day when that closed.

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Permalink Reply by JMG on May 8, 2008 at 10:40am

The Radisson, or whichever hotel that is there, bought many of the slides from the Beach Waterpark, so we should be getting a new waterpark there soon. I doubt there will be a "Lazy River," though and that's what I liked best.

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Permalink Reply by NMGolfHacker on May 8, 2008 at 10:45am

We already have a "Lazy River". It is called the Rio Grande. Now go out and have fun cruzing down the Rio. :^)

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Permalink Reply by Grumpy on May 8, 2008 at 11:09am

I've hesitated responding to this post because, honestly, the answer to the question seems obvious. People are letting their lawns die because a lawn uses too much water to keep green. I understand the appeal of having big water in the desert, but many people think that a looming water crisis is imminent and real threat, and thus a waterpark would seem to be a wasteful use of valuable resources.

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Permalink Reply by Phil_0 on May 8, 2008 at 11:15am

I agree - a waterpark seems a little silly for Albuquerque. I think this one's going to be indoors, though, so at least the evaporation will be less severe.

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Permalink Reply by Brendan on May 8, 2008 at 11:20am

I have to wonder how many back yard swimming pools might be averted if there were a good water park to go to instead. Water loss through evaporation may be less overall at a park than a thousand temporary home pools. Also anybody at the park is cooling off in the water rather than running a swamp cooler at home. Factor in the water used to generate electricity and there may be a sound argument for a water park here.

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Permalink Reply by Grumpy on May 8, 2008 at 11:50am

Brendan, most people while at the water park have their swamp cooler running so that the house will be cool when they get home. I'm curious, how many back yard swimming pools are there in Albuquerque - what percent of homes have one? If people are considering a moratorium on lawns why not a moratorium on home pools? I believe Santa Fe no longer allows new pools but I might be wrong on that. I have a friend that built a new house in Santa Fe a few years ago and she wasn't allowed to put in a watering system for her yard but she was allowed to have a hot tub. At night she'd take water out of the hot tub and water her flowers with it.

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Permalink Reply by Brendan on May 8, 2008 at 12:32pm

Ok, lets ignore the swamp cooler aspect :-) Instead, I'll pull some numbers out of of a butt-shaped hat. Suppose the metro area has 50 stores that sell temporary above ground pools (Walmart, Target, Lowes, etc). Lets go one to say that they take 3 shipments of pools, about 100 in each shipment and 90% are sold- that's 13500 pools (That's about 1 pool per 60 residents). Pools range in size from 1 foot high and 5 feet around (20 cubic feet) to 4 feet high and 18 feet around (1000 cubic feet). Lets assume an average distribution between the sizes and say 510 cubic feet of area to fill. Better yet, lets weight toward the smaller pools and say 255 cubic feet per pool. That's 3,442,500 cubic feet to initially fill all the pools. Ignoring those who dump their pool water after a couple weeks because they didn't maintain chemistry or water is just so cheap why not. Lets also factor in evaporation- call it 1/2 inch a day. Average square foot surface volume is 18 feet square (Using 4 as the average divisor), that's 10,125 square feet that needs refilling each day. Lets assume half do- that's 5000 cubic feet to refill. If people use their pool an average of 90 days in summer, that's another 450,000 cubic feet of refilling. So, we have 3,442,500 and 450,000 cubic feet. There's roughly 7.5 gallons of water in a cubic foot, so total water use is about 29,193,750 gallons for temporary private pools.

Wow, I feel guilty for just thinking about buying one. And we haven't even started talking about all the plastic...

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Permalink Reply by Erika Ruth on May 8, 2008 at 1:33pm

I am not an expert, nor am I from a place that really had much of a problem with water (Washington State). If water is such an issue here, why arn't you guys harping on the Biopark or zoo with their expansive ponds and watering (fed by the Rio Grand?)???? or any of the other big parks with perfectly green grass? A water park seems like a great idea. Palm Springs has one... They are pretty dry. Excuse my ignorance, but a senior center down by Costco and Sandia has a sprinkler play area. It seems much smarter to have public shared facilities for water use than individual private ones.

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Permalink Reply by Celine on May 8, 2008 at 2:40pm

Ericka we don't object to the Botanic Garden and Zoo because they are both educational and for everyone, like municipal pools, a scarce resource is used to promote community and civic pride along with personal interaction and group enjoyment. Not even close to being the same thing as wasteful and inappropriate private enterprise that creates a environment of competition and consumption.
BTW Palm springs is NOT a community to emulate.

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Permalink Reply by jeff on May 8, 2008 at 3:04pm

we pay for the public facilities through taxes and admission fees - so it ain't much different than private enterprise in that it isn't free.

you know that they don't empty and refill it every day, right?
and that it is enclosed in a building so evaporative loss is drastically reduced, right?
and getting the kiddos to put down the wii and get off their fat little asses to get some exercise and learn how to socialize is a good thing right?

private enterprise created the tax base that funded the bioparks....

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Permalink Reply by FireMedicRN on May 10, 2008 at 11:59pm

Water is a problem all over the country. Even in Washington State: www.doh.wa.gov/ehp/dw/drought/droughthome.htm
And while some parts of the country seem to have a lot of water, they may not have quite so much fresh, potable water. In almost all of the country people use drinking water to water their lawns and wash their cars. Not a very efficient use of such a valuable resource. In fact, using gray water is illegal in some jurisdictions.

The point being that water IS a valuable resource and should be treated that way (even if you don't live in a desert city)

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