No to synthetic turf?

Can you tell the difference between the grass and the turf?

A few weeks ago I saw on the news about a dispute over fake grass. A few residents in Newport Beach thought that it would be wise to save water and money by going green, albeit fake green.

According to the article in the OC Register, half of the water used by an average house in Orange County goes to irrigation. Putting synthetic grass can save up to 20,000 gallons of water annually. That makes me want to put in fake grass right now. Especially since my mom just nagged to me last week about the high cost of heating and water bills in my house.

To me, and to those residents, it seems logical money wise and environmental wise to put in the grass, but board members of the Newport Hills Community Association hate it. They say the grass is ugly so the three residents are being fined up to $1,000 and maybe more later on.

I think that's lame. These people did what they thought was sensible. The residents spent $10,000 to put in synthetic turf to save money and save water. If those three residents each use 20,000 gallons of water annually, with the turf, they would be saving 60,000 gallons of water together!

The article also says, "Imitation grass has slowly popped up across the county in recent years as policymakers fret about degraded seawater health and the potential for water shortages."

Saving water is very important. Just last week, my mom has been hearing rumors that Orange County has such a shortage of water that there is a possibility we will be using recycled toilet water. Days after, I overheard my dad telling her he read somewhere that an anonymous city in Orange County is already using recycled toilet water.

I don't know if the water shortage is that bad, but if it resorts to me using toilet water for anything other then toilet water, I am in favor of everyone putting fake grass in their yards.

Here is the link to the article: http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/money/housing/article_1963397.php