Green Lawns Hurting Future Water Supplies? (health care, suspect, Minnesota, Denver)

[Chango]

I water my green expanses with secondary water. I don't feel so guilty about it.

[AnUnidentifiedMale]

Price increases for water usage. That's the only way to significantly change things.

[nevergoingback]

Originally Posted by sailordave

Good for you. But do you live in an area that is or was a desert enviroment but is now artifically made green through the pumping of millions of gallons of water a day for the sake of a green lawn or green golf course?

Nope, I live in Green Country. Hardly any need for supplemental irrigation. Just playing DA a little bit.

Green Lawns have a positive impact towards the environment.

[specialrequest]

Originally Posted by nevergoingback

While homeowners appreciate the beauty of their lawns, few recognize their environmental benefits.

• » Erosion control
• » Dust stabilization
• » Precipitation capture for groundwater recharge
• » Surface water quality improvement
• » Soil restoration
• » Heat dissipation and temperature moderation
• » Noise abatement
• » Improved entrapment and decomposition of synthetic chemical pollutants
• » Glare reduction
• » Sequestration of carbon dioxide

A well maintained turfgrass lawn can add as much as 15% to the value of a house.

Turfgrass traps and removes dust and dirt from the air. In fact, grass is responsible for trapping 12 million tons of dust each year that would otherwise contaminate the air.

A 2,500 square feet lawn releases enough oxygen for a family of four. Studies estimate the grass and trees along just the interstate highway system in the U.S. create enough oxygen each year to support 22 million people.

Turfgrass naturally cools the surrounding environment; in fact the grass in your lawn has the cooling effect of about 9 tons of air conditioning.

Turfgrass provides a great play area for family games and picnics.

The average suburban lawn can absorb 6,000 gallons of water before runoff occurs. This prevents the movement of soil into the creeks and rivers as well as fertilizer and other nutrients

I water my lawn and trees with well water.

Here are some annual statistics that are a bit less flattering towards the typical grass lawn-

-30-60%of processed, drinking water qulity water is used to water lawns-more than half of that is wasted by improper timing or dosage
-5.25 billion dollars is spent on fossil fuel derived fertilizer for lawns- most wasted by improper usage
-The typical gas lawnmower pollutes in 1 hour as an auto driven 20 miles
-580 million gallons of gas are used for lawnmowers-alot of it wasted through evaporation or spillage
-67 million pounds of synthetic pesticides are spraed or dumped onto lawns-most of it wasted and ending up in our surface water and ground water supplies
-700 million is spent on pesticides used on lawns-

I killed my front lawn years ago, and replaced it with a garden of mostly native plants-

[sailordave]

Originally Posted by specialrequest

Here are some annual statistics that are a bit less flattering towards the typical grass lawn-

-30-60%of processed, drinking water qulity water is used to water lawns-more than half of that is wasted by improper timing or dosage
-5.25 billion dollars is spent on fossil fuel derived fertilizer for lawns- most wasted by improper usage
-The typical gas lawnmower pollutes in 1 hour as an auto driven 20 miles
-580 million gallons of gas are used for lawnmowers-alot of it wasted through evaporation or spillage
-67 million pounds of synthetic pesticides are spraed or dumped onto lawns-most of it wasted and ending up in our surface water and ground water supplies
-700 million is spent on pesticides used on lawns-

I killed my front lawn years ago, and replaced it with a garden of mostly native plants-

I'd love to kill my lawn and replace it with concrete

[specialrequest]

Originally Posted by JerseyG

I tend to think people will concern themselves with more pressing issues.

Well the states surrounding the Great lakes have already organized in anticipation of having to safeguard their natural resource- fresh water- Arizona comes and buys trainloads of water from the Great Lakes no doubt a lot of it ends up watering lawns and golf courses in Phoenix, maybe all those Midwesterners heading down there to the desert still want that green lawn-

[bellalunatic]

Originally Posted by nevergoingback

Green Lawns have a positive impact towards the environment.

Yeah, but everything that goes along with maintaining a green lawn, um, not so much.

[sailordave]

astroturf!!!

[JerseyG]

Originally Posted by sailordave

Water is a pressing issue especially if it's your house on fire and the city ran out of water from it's water towers or if it's your farm produce that lays dying in the field.

Why would that happen unless you live in an environment where maintaining a water supply for anything is neither a new issue or one that is already not maintained?

I've got a ton of snow melting and flooding everything around me...not my pressing concern. If we lived where it was too expensive to maintain a grass yard, we wouldn't have one.

If you head down to the "Jersey Shore" you don't see a lot of grass lawns...just a lot of lawns with rocks in them. In the expensive towns with multi-million dollar cape-cods in them, you do see grass growing...now, do these "richy rich" supply their own water, as I do...with a run off tank that collects rainwater and re-distributes it through my sprinkler system, or as my parents do, who have a well?

If you don't make your own or collect your own, and you're in the middle of a drought or live in the desert, don't use it. Where I live, you'll get a fine if conditions are bad enough and you are caught watering your lawn.

If you live in an environment where water is scarce to begin with...where's the brain surgery involved?

[Houston3]

"Green Lawns Hurting Future Water Supplies?"

So is 12 to 20 million people that should not even be using the water in this country..

How do you suggest we handle that ? It's part of the problem also!