ST. GEORGE — If you can imagine 28 football fields’ worth of grass or an 18-inch wide roll of turf that is over 200 miles long when unrolled, you’ll have a good idea of how much “lazy lawn” has been replaced with water-wise landscaping in Washington County since the end of 2022.

Those are two comparisons that Doug Bennett shared while speaking with St. George News in his office at the Washington County Water Conservation District last month. Bennett is the water district’s conservation manager and oversees water conservation initiatives like the district’s Water Efficient Landscape Program.

The water district implemented the program in December 2022 as part of a statewide initiative to encourage property owners to replace their nonfunctional, water-thirsty turf with more water-friendly landscaping, also known as xeriscape. For every square foot of turf removed, the water district provides a $2 rebate.

Bennett said the removal and replacement of nonfunctional turf costs property owners around $5 per square foot, so the rebate helps cover around 40% of the overall cost of those projects.

The water district has paid out nearly $3 million in rebates, and an estimated 1.6 million square feet of turf has been replaced in Washington County since the program started. Nearly 663,000 square feet of that total have been replaced since the start of the year.

The water savings are significant, Bennett said, as grass uses up to four times as much water as water-friendly landscaping.

He estimated that the replacement of 1.6 million square feet of nonfunctional turf, or “lazy lawns,” from over 1,200 conversion projects across the county will produce a water savings of 72 million gallons annually.

“It’s definitely taking a bite out of the water demand,” Bennett said. “Every one of these projects is saving significant amounts of water.”

Compared to other large water districts, the Washington County Water District is leading the state in lazy lawn replacement.

At the end of June, the other three major water districts in the state reported replacing between 161,800 and 213,300 square feet since the start of the year.

The Utah Division of Water Resources, which serves the rest of the state outside of the water districts’ boundaries, has seen nearly 7,000 square feet of turf removed and replaced since the start of the year.

“We’re proud of what our residents have done,” Bennett said, noting how much Washington County residents have embraced the lawn rebate program and water conservation in general.

There is still a lot of work to be done, Bennett said. This includes businesses that continue to have nonfunctional lawns and areas with the municipalities the water district serves that have yet to be converted to xeriscape.

Another area he said could use work relates to second-home owners who live in the county on a seasonal basis.

Bennett said second-home owners can save money on their water bills and simplify their lives by installing smart water controllers and converting to more efficient landscaping.

“There are a lot of reasons that the seasonal population should be looking at this program,” he said.

There are conditions related to the water district’s rebate program. The $2 per square foot applies to projects replacing up to 5,000 square feet of square feet, with that dropping to $1 per square foot thereafter. Landscaping conversion projects must also cover a minimum of 300 square feet. Projects also cannot go from lawn to straight rock or dirt and must include living water-wise plants, among other requirements, which can be found on the Washington County Water Conservancy District’s website.

Conserve Southwest Utah, a St. George-based conservation group, is pleased with the many conservation measures the water district has initiated in recent years. Both groups have had disagreements over how best to conserve water in the past (particularly regarding the Lake Powell Pipeline), yet are now working together to promote water conservation across the county.

“The WCWCD lawn rebate program (WELP) is doing very well under the direction of Doug Bennett,” Karen Goodfellow, Conserve Southwest Utah’s vice president and water team coordinator, said in an email.

“We advocate for the conversion of outdoor landscapes to reflect the desert environment we live in, WELP (Water Efficiency Landscape Program) was the impetus for CSU to present the Parade of Gardens Southern Utah and collaborate with Doug and WCWCD, as well as local nurseries, home builders, and landscapers.”

The Parade of Gardens Southern Utah is a tour across Washington County of homes featuring water-efficient landscaping, some of which have taken advantage of the water district’s rebate program. The tour will be held in late September when outdoor temperatures begin to cool.

Goodfellow added that the conservation group is also happy to see the water district “pivoting away from continuing to support our historically high-water consumption provided by the Virgin River” and the proposed Lake Powell Pipeline.

“The Virgin River and its watershed are our single source for water,” she wrote. “This is a very fragile system. It is being heavily impacted by tourism, rapid development, including too many septic systems in new glamping sites, significant increases in population, and severe drought powered by increasing changing climate … .

“Conserve Southwest Utah strongly believes that together, conservation, price, and smart growth can drive down our total regional and county water use to support true desert livability for generations to come and as our population grows.”

Overall, with a drier, hotter summer and less precipitation recently predicted by forecasters and the potential of a late and lackluster monsoon season accompanying it, Bennett said converting to water-wise landscaping is a great and ultimately inexpensive way to help preserve the county’s water supply during periods of drought.

“We all realize it hasn’t rained in a while,” Bennett said, adding it has been two months since the area saw any measurable amount of rainfall. “These are the type of projects that can help us all prepare for worse conditions that are most certainly going to come in the future, and it looks like they may come in the near term instead of the long term.”

As for the monetary savings, in addition to a smaller water bill, water-wise landscape can also help taxpayers save on the cost of new water infrastructure, Bennett said. It can cost the state and agencies like the water district up to $20,000-$50,000 per acre-foot of water in infrastructure development, depending on the project. However, with the water being saved through lawn conversions, those costs are dropping to around $15,000 per acre-foot, he said.

In addition to the lawn rebate program, the water district has also produced a 20-year plan for water conservation, gotten area municipalities to adopt matching conservation standards for new construction, added surcharge fees for water wasters and other measures.

“We’re asking people to participate (in the rebate program), but we’re also enacting policies to get our water users to change their habits,” Bennett said.

Ed. note: This article is published through the Colorado River Collaborative, a solutions journalism initiative supported by the Janet Quinney Lawson Institute for Land, Water, and Air at Utah State University. See all of our stories about how Utahns are impacted by the Colorado River at greatsaltlakenews.org/coloradoriver.

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