Southwest Utah Lawn ‘Buyback’ Program Pays Off

Washington County, Utah will pay residents to swap water-intensive lawns for drought-tolerant landscaping, reports Morgan Sjogren in Reasons to Be Cheerful.

According to Sjogren, 70 percent of residential culinary water in Utah is used on grass lawns. “By shifting landscaping away from grass and to plants more readily adapted to the climate, the Washington County Water Conservancy District estimates that residents can reduce landscape watering to 11 gallons per square foot annually, compared to 56 gallons for conventional turf.”

Residents who apply for the program have a year to complete projects to receive the incentive of $2 per square foot of converted turf, and $1 per square foot after 5,000 square feet. The program includes stipulations about irrigation, permeable barriers, and types of plants.

Since the program began in late 2022, 2,044 applications have been submitted and 918 projects are complete. Although Washington County has reduced its per capita water use by 30 percent since 2000, rapid population growth means that the county’s overall water use has grown by 15 percent in the same period.