Page 28 - bon-dia-aruba-20210412

A28 u.s. news
Dialuna 12 aPRil 2021

Las Vegas pushes to become first to ban ornamental grass

imaging, it believes banning ticularly in cities where water
ornamental grass will pri- consumption per person is
marily affect common areas high, they say there’s no one-
maintained by homeowner size-fits-all approach for a
associations and commercial drier future.
property owners. Las Vegas, for example, most-
Jones said the proposal has ly ignores toilets, showers
drawn resistance in some and dishwashers because the
master-planned communi- water authority is able to treat
ties, but water officials say and recycle indoor wastewa-
years of drought-awareness ter and let it flow through a
campaigns and policies like natural wash into Lake Mead
the rebates have cultivated a — the Colorado River reser-
cultural change. voir behind Hoover Dam. It
Southern Nevada Home- is filtered again for reuse.
builders’ Association lobbyist A draconian anti-grass policy
Matt Walker said consumer might not work in down-
preferences have reached the town Phoenix, said Cynthia
point that potential home- Campbell, water resources
buyers from wetter regions adviser for the nation’s fifth-
aren’t turned off from neigh- largest city. Trees and grass
borhoods that have parks but blunt public health dangers
no ornamental grass. of “ urban heat islands ” —
Conservation frees water, areas lacking green landscap-
reduces per capita consump- ing to offset heat through
tion and strengthens build- evaporative cooling.
(AP) — A desert city built within the community,” said vides, the amount allocated ers’ arguments that the des- Regional water officials un-
on a reputation for excess Colby Pellegrino, Southern to Arizona, California and ert can accommodate more derstand future consumption
and indulgence wants to Nevada Water Authority wa- Nevada is projected to be cut growth, Walker said. “And the will have to be reduced but
become a model for re- ter resources director. further. benefits are the ability to keep fear the preparation and per-
straint and conservation California imposed a tem- Justin Jones, a Clark County doing what we do, which is ception could backfire if the
with a first-in-the-nation porary ban on watering or- commissioner who serves on building homes.” community doesn’t buy in.
policy banning grass that namental grass during last the water authority’s board, “We’ve really gotten a com- “There comes a point when
nobody walks on. decade’s drought, but no doesn’t think ripping out fort level that buyers are very people’s demands start to
state or major city has tried to ornamental turf will upend much willing to go along harden,” Campbell said.
Las Vegas-area water officials phase out certain categories people’s lives. with responsible develop- “They’ll say, ‘This is the
have spent two decades try- of grass permanently. “To be clear, we are not com- ment practices when it comes point of no return for me.’
ing to get people to replace “The scale of this is pretty ing after your average hom- to water use,” he added. For some people, it’s a pool.
thirsty greenery with desert unprecedented in terms of a eowner’s backyard,” he said. Other desert cities aren’t so For some people, it’s grass.”
plants, and now they’re ask- full ban on this nonfunction- But grass in the middle of a sure. Salt Lake City has an The Southern Nevada Water
ing the Nevada Legislature al turf,” said John Berggren, a parkway, where no one walks: ordinance that requires a Authority isn’t sure the idea
to outlaw roughly 40% of the water policy analyst at West- “That’s dumb.” certain amount of yard and of banning grass will spread
turf that’s left. ern Resource Advocates. “The only people that ever median greenery. Phoenix, to other cities. But Pellegri-
The Southern Nevada Wa- The proposal is part of a set foot on grass that’s in the where some neighborhoods no, the water resources chief,
ter Authority estimates there turf war waged since at least middle of a roadway system remain lush from flood ir- said other places will have to
are almost 8 square miles (21 2003, when the water author- are people cutting the grass,” rigation, has never offered make changes.
square kilometers) of “non- ity banned developers from Jones said. grass removal rebates. “Particularly every commu-
functional turf” in the metro planting green front yards in The agency has different reg- Water officials elsewhere are nity that relies on Colorado
area — grass that no one ever new subdivisions. It also of- ulations for yards and pub- loath to compare their poli- River water.”
walks on or otherwise uses in fers owners of older proper- lic parks. Based on satellite cies to southern Nevada. Par-
street medians, housing de- ties the region’s most gener-
velopments and office parks. ous rebate policies to tear out
They say this ornamental sod — up to $3 per square
grass requires four times as foot.
much water as drought-tol- Those efforts are slowing.
erant landscaping like cactus The agency says the number
and other succulents. By rip- of acres converted under its
ping it out, they estimate the rebate program fell last year
region can reduce annual wa- to six times less than what
ter consumption by roughly it was in 2008. Meanwhile,
15% and save about 14 gal- water consumption in south-
lons (53 liters) per person per ern Nevada has increased 9%
day. since 2019.
Las Vegas might be known Last year was among the dri-
for splashy displays like the est in the region’s history,
Bellagio fountains on the ne- when Las Vegas went a record
on-lit Strip, but officials say 240 days without measurable
residents of bedroom com- rainfall. And the future flow
munities and sprawling sub- of the Colorado River, which
urbs embrace conservation accounts for 90% of southern
measures, including aggres- Nevada’s water, is in ques-
sive monitoring of sprinklers tion.
and leaky irrigation systems. The waterway supplies Ari-
“The public perception out- zona, California, Colorado,
side of Las Vegas is certainly Utah, Nevada, New Mexico,
much different — and has Wyoming and Mexico. As
been for a long time — than drought and climate change
the water conservation ethic decrease what the river pro-