California to Pay Residents to Rip Out Their Water-Intensive Lawns

When you live in an artificially lush desert environment where water availability is already a problem, is it smart to use what little water you have to keep pointless lawns green? Uh, no. As many of you already know, wasting water on lawns is a major pet peeve of ours here at EarthFirst – it just doesn’t make any damn sense.

So, we’re thrilled to hear that Los Angeles officials are finally waking up to the stupidity of such wastefulness, and giving owners of single family homes an incentive to stop. They’re going to pay LA residents to rip out their useless, water-intensive lawns.

From the Los Angeles Times:

Fast on the heels of the new watering ordinances that took effect June 1, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has begun a cash-for-grass program. Single-family homes served by the DWP will be eligible to receive $1 for every square foot of turf that they replace with less thirsty alternatives.

For years Southern California water managers paid scant attention to outdoor water conservation. Then they saw stunning savings achieved in Nevada. According to the Southern Nevada Water Authority, in the last decade, Las Vegas has removed more than 125 million square feet of grass, saving 7 billion gallons of water a year. That’s almost one-tenth of Southern Nevada’s annual water supply.

The rebate program will pay Department of Water and Power customers to remove up to 2,000 square feet of lawn and replace it with water-wise landscaping. Having a plan for the successor landscape is necessary to get the rebate, so people can’t just dig up their lawns and leave a big pit of dirt in its place.

If you’re going to use water, grow food. Otherwise, drought-resistant landscaping is the way to go. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has a ‘Be Water Wise’ website where residents can get ideas of what to plant.

It’s about time. We all need to start treating water like the precious resource that it is.

Link [LA Times]
Photo credit: Flickr user Jeremy Levine Design

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