Southern Californians say so long to lawns

Lush turf loses ground as state remains mired in significant drought

LOS ANGELES— When Gov. Jerry Brown ordered Californians to reduce urban water use by 25 per cent, he declared war on the ubiquitous manicured lawn that, more than palm trees or pools, has for more than half a century been the beloved badge of Southland suburbia.

Among the early casualties is the expanse of green turf that Tom Beck and his wife planted around their Arcadia, Calif., home 26 years ago.

“I have mixed emotions,” Beck said recently as he watched a gardening crew scrape up the grass in his backyard and cart it to a truck headed for the green waste dump.

The Becks’ four children grew up playing on the lawn. Their dogs romped on it. They hosted garden parties on it.

But “times have changed,” Beck said.

Now the Arcadia city councilman is relandscaping his spacious lot to cut his water-guzzling lawn in half.

Big droughts leave their stamp on California. The 1976-77 drought helped launch the move to low-flow plumbing fixtures.

This one may be the beginning of the end of that standard of Southern California, the lush lawn.

“The idea of your nice little green grass getting lots of water every day — that’s going to be a thing of the past,” the governor said when he issued his Apr. 1 directive.

The Greater Los Angeles Area is expected to tear out the equivalent of more than 2,100 football fields of grass — or more than twice the turf removal goal Brown set for the entire state in his emergency drought order.

“I think people will look back 10 years from now (and say) that was the period when Southern California started moving away from lawns,” said Jeffrey Kightlinger, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

Demand for turf removal rebates has exploded since Brown’s order.

In a single week this month, Metropolitan received nearly $49-million worth of requests for conservation rebates, most of them for cash-for-grass subsidies. The board is considering pumping an extra $150 million into the program and is likely to set new rebate limits to stretch the funding. But that clearly won’t be enough, and the agency is warning rebate applicants there is no guarantee of approval.

Getting rid of lawns is a huge step forward in water conservation. The Metropolitan Water District estimates that removing one square foot of grass in Southern California saves 42 gallons of water a year. Turf-removal programs are in essence buying water, often at a high price.

Metropolitan has been paying homeowners and businesses $2 a square foot to rip out lawns. When costs are pro-rated over a decade, the agency says the price of the conserved water amounts to $1,500 an acre-foot. Some cities, including Los Angeles, are adding their own rebates to that of the Metropolitan Water District, pushing the total water cost, ultimately born by ratepayers, even higher.