This news story was extremely interesting to me. I grew up in Lehi, and my parents still reside there. To summarize the situation: the city is running out of drinking water. To counteract the shortage they are telling residents to not use culinary water on their lawns.

Shouldn’t people already be doing this? Lehi has a pressurized secondary system in place, and I am at a lose as to why someone would use culinary water when secondary is available. One issue might be water pressure: my parent have always had less than desirable water pressure, both in and out. But I see many residents watering their lawn daily and  it’s a no brainier why. I would guess the majority of people over irrigate, in order to maintain a nice, lush, artificial green lawn.

So here is some simple irrigation advice:

• If you are in Utah, use this site. It makes it easy to know how often to water.
• Get a free water check if available.
• Irrigation is variable throughout the season. Irrigation clocks should be changed frequently, in response to changing weather conditions.
• It is better to have some plants die than to run out of drinking water.
• Lawn likes cooler temperatures and goes dormant in the summer. The yellowing grass is less than attractive, but it does not mean it is dead. To keep lawn alive, as little as one irrigation a month is sufficient. Dormant grass does not have to be a landscape horror, but rather a sustainable method to reduce water use. (See here)
• Reduce lawn. Turf-grasses require a lot of water in order to maintain a green lush appearance in the summer. Many groundcovers, perennials and shrubs and even some alternative turf-grasses require a fraction of the water required of a traditional lawn. Hardscapes, water features, and mulched areas also use little to no water.
• Improve the efficiency of the irrigation systems. Signs of a bad irrigation system include: dry patches intermixed with green, often in circular pattern; rotars and spray heads running at the same time; excessive water run-off; and no head-to-head coverage.

I currently reside in an apartment. The grass is lush, green, attractive. It even has mushrooms growing in it. It is pampered with plenty of irrigation water (from the culinary system) every other day. It has been irrigated the same way since the system was turned on. Although the lawn does look nice, is it worth it? For me the answer is no.  I believe the lawn could be nice and green (minus the mushrooms) with far less irrigation water. The lawn has a shallow root system, and does not react well to stress. Because of this, I do not consider it healthy. It is certainly not sustainable: as seen in Lehi, culinary water is not inexhaustible. We should not run out of drinking water in order to keep our lawns green.

For more information see:

Basic Turfgrass Care

Turgrass Water Use in Utah