What's that 'chemcially treated lawn' worth?

Who doesn't like a beautiful weed-free lawn in their front yard? We believe an attractive lawn earns us the approval of our neighbors. Dave Barry, the syndicated columnist said, “The average American home owner would rather live next to a pervert, heroin addict or communist pornographer than someone with an un kempt lawn.”

But the question is what is it worth to have that ‘chemically treated’ lawn or how large a price will we continue to pay for our manicured green carpets?

As Americans, we spend $40 billion per year caring for our turf and lawns- that’s ten times more than is spent on school textbooks! But it smells so good when it’s cut, it’s so pleasant to look at, it’s fun to roll and run on, it’s alive, it’s green and natural. Botanically speaking, a lawn is far from natural. Turf grass is a monoculture, developed to suppress, and out-compete all other species that would normally germinate in its place. If you choose to plant and maintain turf grass, you are essentially eliminating diversity in your home garden.

Well, I will keep the biological diversity issue for some later discussion but let’s focus on the nutrients and fertilizers that we have been applying to our lawns.

Did you know that :

The hazardous lawn chemicals are drifting into our homes where they contaminate indoor air and surfaces, exposing children at levels ten times higher than pre-application levels.

Of 30 commonly used lawn pesticides, 19 are linked with cancer or carcinogencity, 13 are linked with birth defects, 21 with reproductive effects, 26 with liver or kidney damage, 15 with neurotoxicity, and 11 with disruption of the endocrine (hormonal) system.

Of those same 30 lawn pesticides, 17 are detected in groundwater, 23 have the ability to leach into drinking water sources, 24 are toxic to fish and other aquatic organisms vital to our ecosystem, 11 are toxic to bees, and 16 are toxic to birds. With numbers like this, the only logical question becomes: is this really necessary and what can we do to stop or prevent this kind of contamination?

Some 100 million pounds of pesticides are used by homeowners in homes and gardens each year, even more when commercial companies are added in. Suburban lawns and gardens are known to receive far heavier pesticide applications per acre than most other land areas in the U.S., including agricultural areas.

As far as I remember, storm water run-off from non-point sources (such as farms, residential lawns) contribute to anywhere from 60 to 80% of the nutrient loading in our streams. How? It is as simple as rain falling on the chemically treated and overly fertilized lawn and running down the roadside gutter to the nearest creek. Big rain events result in major nutrient and chemical ‘shock’ to the urban creeks and streams and result is really worrisome.

The world is rapidly changing and with it are perspectives on the use of toxic lawn chemicals and the hazards they pose to our children, families, neighbors, wildlife, and drinking water sources?

I am NOT advocating against having a lawn or a green yard. Rather, they are important from preventing soil erosion. What I am advocating is putting a simple thought behind the ‘routine’ practices. Educate our selves and be more responsible about our actions for preserving our environment and be responsible for sustainable future for us and coming generations.

Resources are out there to help you out.

Mulching, planting native plants and shrubs, customizing the fertilizers per your soil / garden’s needs rather than blindly applying fertilizers, going ‘organic’ route for weed control and fertilizing are just a few simple ways to have environmentally friendly lawns.

In most cases, doing ‘the right thing’ is economical is the long run and may be even short run. Just give it a careful thought!

Good resources for additional information are:

Organiclawncare101 and Organic Lawn Care FAQ

Links to the resources from which I received information for this post:

http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncer_abstracts/index.cfm/fuseaction/display.abstractDetail/abstract/797

http://www.beyondpesticides.org/pesticidefreelawns/

http://www.ghorganics.com/Refuse%20to%20Use%20Lawn%20Chemicals.htm

http://www.losethelawn.com/lose_lawn_article.php

Below are some additional resources to go ‘organic’ and have sustainable and environmentally friendly yard!

Organic Lawn Care FAQ

http://www.ghorganics.com/products_currently_available.htm

http://www.ghlp.org/tips.html

http://www.richsoil.com/lawn-care.jsp

Additional Information on this subject can be found at:

http://www.mde.state.md.us/assets/document/AppendixE.pdf

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/DG2923.html

http://www.westchestergov.com/HEALTH/JustSayLawnChemicals.htm

http://www.yougrowgirl.com/lawns_gardens_convert.php

Let's have a debate....who is using that water?

So, I was on the flight back to Atlanta and started chatting with the person traveling next to me. His name was Jay and he was a project manager for a software consulting firm.
Somehow our discussion on 'consulting' turned to 'water issues' in general.
I was amazed how many very interesting topics we touched on....each one of them worthy of having a debate.

I am hoping to pose these questions and issues to the readers of this blog and I am inviting you to have a dialogue or at least express your opinion.

First on the list is - Who is using that water?

Jay mentioned to me that he recently moved to a community where he did not receive any water bill. Water and sewer charges were included as part of the HOA (Home Owners Association) fees.

At first, this sounds great.....no water bill! How wonderful...

Think about it for a moment and the picture becomes clear.

Although, there were no individual water meters on homes, the 75-home community had one common water meter and water bill was evenly distributed to all residents. Cost of the water and equivalent sewer bills were included as part of the HOA payment.

So, I asked him...
Does everyone in your community have a lush green yard?

The obvious answer was Yes. Beautiful lawns.

Second question, how many people do you have in your house and how about the next five houses on your street?
Jay mentioned, we are two but our neighbors on both sides have three kids.

And sure enough....he got the gist of where I was going with these questions.

The point is....with such arrangements, people don't have any incentive to value water. Why would someone fix their leaky toilet at home? Fixing it might cost them close to $100 versus letting it run and the let everyone in the neighborhood pick up the tab for the wastage.

What about an underground leak on the pipe within the neighborhood? No one would see if, no one would feel it (in form of water bill).

Jay understood the issue very well and did make a note to bring this up in the next HOA meeting. Although, water is not a significant component of the HOA fees right now, it could and I would say....it would in a near future if the community continues to operate this way.

He has quiet a few uphill battles to fight still. Installing a water heater on every home is a significant upfront cost. In some cases, water utilities / providers will charge anywhere from $2,000 to $3,000 to tap the line and install a new water meter.

So, who would pay such upfront cost?

A lot of the water utilities (providers) have water conservation plans.
However, my hunch is the water utility would also like to stay away from this issue. As installing water meters on individual homes will eventually lead to lesser water consumption. Less water they sell, less money they make. Every utility is virtually hurting for revenues and unless they increase the water / sewer rates.....they can't make up for the deficit.

The other side of the question is - why would any utility (water provider) even allow such development?

Whose responsibility is it to promote 'water-wise' development?


Back to the bigger issue here...

Atlanta has very limited resources and water being the number one in my list. We are paying far too less for water to be thinking about it and preserving it. Drought of last three years had brought much needed attention to this idea but......we are back to the 'same' after good rain in the spring this year.