As the Rio Grande drought heads into a more seve! re period and city
officials continue to debate solutions, homeowners are taking action.
They are pulling out grass and looking for water-saving alternatives,
such as subsurface irrigation.
Normally, the city would tap Rio Grande reservoirs in February or March,
in time to supply water for homeowners' lawns and swamp coolers. But years
of limited snowfall and rain in the northern mountains supplying the river
means there won't be an adequate supply of water until late May or early
June.
The Public Service Board is hoping the City Council will approve Stage 2
restrictions that would implement a one-day-a-week watering schedule
starting in April. City Council officials asked the board to return Tuesday
with a plan that focuses on using pricing to create the 25 percent reduction
in water use the PSB wants.
While city officials continue to debate the solution, landscapers are
being flooded with calls on xeriscaping and a new irrigation system that
waters plants undergr! ound.
Though more El Pasoans are inquiring about xeris! caping -- using
drought-tolerant plants for landscaping -- some area gardeners are worried
that a rash and drastic trend of pouring rocks where grass and trees used to
be will lead to a less aesthetic and hotter Sun City.
Anticipating tougher watering restrictions this summer, Lorenzo Nieto, an
Eastsider who took pride in his lush Bermuda grass for 31 years, said
goodbye to his lawn last week.
"It's time to heed the message that this is real. ... It's really a waste
of water. I should have done it a long time ago," he said.
Joe Lomeli, owner of J&J Landscaping on Montana, expects a boom in people
taking advantage of a rebate program this summer.
"They're worried their grass is going to die with a one-day water
restriction. So they're starting to adjust before (Stage 2) hits and want to
get ahead of the rush," he said. "Even sod-loving people are finally coming
to terms -- we live in a desert, might as well have desert landscaping."
Anai Padilla, water conservati! on manager for the El Paso Water
Utilities, applauds people's efforts to substitute grass with
environmentally sensitive plants. The rebate program pays $1 for every
square foot of grass removed. Plans must be approved by the utility before
any digging can begin.
For the fiscal year 2002-03, officials said 467 residential and
commercial sites participated in the rebate program with 1,303,236 square
feet of grass being removed.
Wynn Anderson, curator of the Chihuahuan Desert Garden at UTEP's
Centennial Museum, is among those worried that some homeowners might
overreact.
"We're bothered by the negative outpouring and hopelessness that people
feel," Anderson said. "We fear that people will be tearing out all of their
grass and letting their trees die. We don't want people to stop gardening."
More yards with crushed rock could mean a rise in temperature, he said.
"You're going to have a heat island effect. We'll be right there with
Phoenix ... and the summer, it'll ! be miserable," he said. "That's a big
price to pay."
H! e added, "We have to stop using water but it doesn't mean we have to
have ugly landscapes. And it does not mean we have to drastically alter the
temperature of the urban area of this community."
That's why educating people about xeriscaping is so important, experts
said.
The resources are certainly there.
The El Paso Native Plant Society meets monthly and has educational talks
on plants and habitats and an annual native-plant sale at the University of
Texas at El Paso. About 44,000 plants were sold last year.
"There are 4,000 species of plants in the Chihuahuan Desert," said
Anderson, who teaches a sunscape class at UTEP. "And some are high-water
users, and some are medium- and low-water users."
Desertland Nursery and Pottery Center, Sierra Vista Growers in La Union,
N.M., Pearson's Tree Place and Caby's Landscape Garden Center are among area
nurseries that stock native plants.
Adrienne Pannell, of Caby's in Northeast El Paso, said interest in native
plants i! s growing slowly. The nursery carries native plants, including
mesquite trees and desert willows.
But there is a perception problem.
"People come in with their list, see the native plants that are scraggly
looking and say, 'Oh, no,' " she said. "They want instant beauty. But it's
going to take a couple of seasons of growing for them to get established."
For others like Louise and Steven Bergdahl, no plant is scraggly.
"My husband is from Chicago, and I'm from Michigan, but we fell in love
with the desert," Louise Bergdahl said.
After some research and some classes on xeriscaping, the couple converted
their front and back yards with xeriscaping, using the utility's rebate
program. They received about $1,200 for the front yard and $2,000 for the
back yard.
"We kept a small patch of grass in the middle of the back yard but then
all native plants," she said. "Our yard is much more interesting than it was
before, when it was just awful grass."
