Cash for Grass is not a new concept in the Western United States. Water districts in places like Las Vegas, El Paso, Texas, Albuquerque, New Mexico and Los Angeles for years have been offering residential homeowners cash rebates of up to $1 per square foot to convert their lawns to more water-friendly landscapes.The Coachella Valley Water District in California has taken the program to the next step, offering desert golf courses a similar water-saving incentive that includes rebates of up to $15,000 per acre of converted turf up to a maximum of seven acres ($105,000), according to a story in The Desert Sun.
A total of 70 of the 123 courses in the valley pump groundwater, with the other 53 on Colorado River or recycled water. Those 70 courses, according to the CVWD, use almost 24 billion gallons of groundwater per year, or about 25 percent of the area's annual supply. Craig Kessler of the Southern California Golf Association told the newspaper that at least 30 of those 70 courses are considering a conversion. The water district says it plans to spend $1.3 million in rebates to golf courses through mid-March. The program is funded through a $5.2 million state Proposition 84 grant that was awarded to the Coachella Valley Regional Water Management Group that includes the areas five public water agencies.
Golf facilities throughout the area were built decades ago, when Bob Hope, the area's most famous golf ambassador was wielding a driver on stage while he entertained U.S. troops overseas, and long before the current three-year drought plagued the area. Operators of those facilities know conserving water is important, but converting managed turf to xeriscape settings is costly, and can cost twice what the CVWD is offering per acre, according to Dean Miller, director of agronomy at PGA West in the story in The Desert Sun. The rebate program offers those courses a chance to recover some of the cost associated with such a conversion.