Water authority ready to pay for bigger grass conversions

After a year of targeting small residential lawns, the Southern Nevada Water Authority is headed out in search of bigger game.

Starting Jan. 1, the authority will experiment with new rates and no restrictions for its popular cash-for-grass program. The goal is to entice golf courses, homeowners associations and other large properties to downsize their grass.

Under the new rebate rules approved by the water authority board on Thursday, the authority will pay a flat $1.50 for every square-foot of turf that is removed and replaced with desert landscaping, regardless of how large the conversion.

The authority used to cap the total rebate amount for a single conversion at $300,000 and pay less for turf removed after the first 1,500 square-feet.

The change could entice some golf courses to tear out some of their turf, said Doug Bennett, conservation manager for the water authority.

A single golf course conversion can total 500,000 square feet or more.

"We have some large golf course (conversion) projects that have been talked about for a number of years," he said.

Area golf courses have already torn out a total 500 acres of grass, most of it during the past three years. That's enough turf to build five new golf courses, Bennett said.

The new rebate rules will replace a special, limited-time offer the authority extended in January 2007: $2 per square-foot for the first 1,500 square-feet removed, and $1 for every square-foot after that.

Bennett said that one-year offer was aimed at homeowners who were still clinging to small patches of water-guzzling grass.

"We wanted to do something to get them off the fence," he said. "It worked. We saw a doubling of residential applications."

Since the turf-rebate program's launch in 1999, more than 86 million square feet -- or 3 square miles -- of turf has been replaced with desert landscaping.

Rebates typically cover about half the cost of a landscape conversion, though customers also can expect to save some money on their water bills.

Ripping out even one square foot of grass saves an average of 55 gallons of water a year. To date, the rebate program is credited with saving more than 17.5 billion gallons of water a year, which is enough to supply more than 100,000 homes.

"I'm just encouraged that this is working," said water authority board member Chip Maxfield. "I'd expect you'll see quite a bit more (applications) in the coming year."

Board Chairwoman Shari Buck said she plans to bring the new rate structure to the attention of the homeowners association in her North Las Vegas neighborhood.

Buck lives in the Eldorado master-planned community, not far from a one square-mile area that ranked No. 1 earlier this year on the water authority's list of Southern Nevada's grassiest neighborhoods.

"That (homeowners' association) board, for whatever reason, will not go to desert landscaping, so we have grass medians and you see water running all over the place," Buck said.

The special $2-per-square-foot rate remains in effect until the end of the year. Applications for conversions that are filed in 2007 and completed in 2008 will be paid out based on whichever rate benefits the applicant the most.

Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0350.