The Harmful Health Consequences of Reef's Four Golf Course Resort
The Southern Paiute Shivwits people are concerned that the placement of four pesticide treated and wastewater irrigated golf courses on Shivwits Lands puts at risk the health and safety of band members and their Utah neighbors. Shivwits residential homes are located just below and downhill from Reef's planned three 18-hole luxury golf course complex and Ivins Utah's community neighborhoods are within a few miles. See the PDF below for a two-page summary of the negative health impacts of Reef's proposed four golf course resort.
The closer a person lives to a golf course, the worse that person's health is likely to be. Golf course pesticides and chemically contaminated golf course wastewater irrigation can cause increased incidence of neurologic diseases, cancer, Parkinsons, and Alzheimer's. A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association measured the statistically increased incidence of neurologic diseases such as Parkinsons in association with golf course proximity. In the last five to ten years, thousands of credible research studies have been published by trustworthy journals, the EPA, the Academies of Science, Medicine, and Engineering, the United States Geological Society, and others revealing data indicating that the pesticides, herbicides, and insecticides golf courses use pose a risk to human health.
The reclaimed wastewater irrigation which will be provided to Reef Capital to irrigate its three golf courses on Shivwits sacred lands contains dangerous levels of forever chemicals (PFAS) and other Chemicals of Emerging Concern, including pharmaceuticals, hormones, personal care products, flame retardants, microplastics, nano plastics. The EPA and the Academy of Science, Medicine, and Engineering assess this secondary wastewater to be associated with significant health hazards. Not only does wastewater irrigation contain toxic levels of forever chemicals and other chemicals, but the process of wastewater management increases the worst kind of forever chemicals in wastewater.
Cumulative exposure exponentiates that risk: The larger the dose, the greater the quantity, and the longer the exposure, the worse it is for people living nearby and for the environment. Chronic pesticide exposure turns on a genetic switch in humans which is akin to the way smoking turns on a person’s genetic risk for lung cancer. Four golf courses in the corner of the Mojave Desert will need to use an immense volume of chemically contaminated irrigation wastewater and significant volumes of pesticides. (Of note: pesticides are one of the many kinds of forever chemicals.)
These chemical health hazards will be borne on the regions native windstorms and carried into homes, well water, and the Santa Clara River by torrential rainstorms off the Red Mountain. Reef's chemically contaminated golf courses will negatively impact the health of generations of Shivwits people and their Ivins neighbors.
For a more extensive research-based analysis opposing unsafe development on Shivwits Band of Paiutes Tribal Lands see the PDF below: Health and Environmental Dangers of Reef's Shivwits Development with Research Data. Also, please see the section of this website on Groups Opposing Reef's Resort, including Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment.
