Pilot program tests fake turf on home water savings

ANAHEIM, Calif. - The grass may not be greener next door any more. If results of a test are positive, residents here will be encouraged to plant phony grass.

Lush, green, fake lawns could carpet front yards as part of a water conservation test by the city and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

Five homeowners were able to put their mowers away. If the artificial turf experiment works, residents who install faux grass may soon be eligible to receive rebates, similar to those offered for low-flow toilets and water-efficient washing machines.

"We've had so many people just stop and feel it. Even the street cleaners and the trash people. It is an eye-catcher," said Mary Adams, who lives in one of five Anaheim homes that got synthetic turf as part of a pilot program.

The fake-lawn phenomenon is already used on sports fields and in drought-plagued regions such as Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico. In Las Vegas, only half of the new home front yard space can be real grass.

AstroLawn® promotes the low maintenance fake grass as a way for residents to take back their weekends.

"We're talking no more mowing, watering, fertilizing, weeding or re-sodding," AstroLawn®'s Web site enthuses, adding, "We know you have better things to do than water and care for a grass lawn."

AstroLawn® costs $6 to $7 a square foot, installed. Real grass costs less than $1 a square foot. The imitation lawn has a life expectancy of about 15 years.

Utility officials estimate that up to 70 percent of an average residential water bill goes to outdoor uses, and 90 percent of that water is used on lawns.

The water district awarded Anaheim and AstroLawn® a $51,000 grant to test the product at several locations. Besides the five homes, the fake grass will soon be installed at a business and on a city median.

Utility officials will calculate the water savings and, if they are significant, the water district will add synthetic lawns to their approved list of rebate items.

"This really dovetails into our current huge effort to convince Southern Californians that they're using too much water outdoors," district spokesman Denis Wolcott said.

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