Colorado’s top water agency has awarded nearly $1.2 million in new grants to communities across the state this year as its effort to boost conservation by replacing water-intensive lawns with drought-resistant grasses continues.
The money comes on top of $1.5 million the Colorado Water Conservation Board has awarded since 2023, when lawmakers OK’d the special grant fund to help communities test and expand turf replacement programs. The CWCB is the state’s primary water agency, helping set policy and disbursing money for water-related grants and loans.
Among the largest awards in this funding cycle is $462,234 to Colorado Springs and $498,087 to the Boulder-based Resource Center, a recycling and conservation organization. Aurora won $100,000 to continue its GreatScapes initiative, which pays for complete turf replacement programs for homeowners who earn less than 60% of the city’s annual median income, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
As Colorado and other Western states watch climate change reduce stream flows and shrink water supplies, efforts are underway to reduce water use.
Some in the state, including a few Colorado Water Conservation Board members, have questioned the effectiveness of the turf replacement programs. In this grant cycle, for instance, the top three grants total just over $1 million but will generate water savings of just 50 acre-feet. An acre-foot equals 326,000 gallons, enough water to serve two to four urban homes for one year.
John McClow, who represents the Gunnison River Basin on the CWCB board, said that the price tag for saving such a small amount of water is high.
“We’re spending $1 million to save 50 acre-feet of water a year. It’s a huge investment for very little return,” McClow said at a recent board meeting.
Water prices across the West are soaring as demand grows and supplies shrink. The costs on those water grants pencil out to roughly $20,000 an acre-foot, a price that is considered a good deal in some Front Range water markets, where water can sell for more than $60,000 an acre-foot. But variations in cost are common. Some farm water supplies go for as little as $400 an acre-foot.
Cities and water districts who have participated in the grants say there is more than a strict cost per acre-foot analysis that needs to be considered as Colorado enters a water-short era and looks for ways to make every drop count.
Marty Pool is Durango’s director of sustainability and is overseeing that city’s first turf replacement pilot program. It won $25,000 from the CWCB last year, and added its own matching funds of another $25,000 as required by the program.
“All of these programs are serving two purposes,” Pool said. “Do the work and then evaluate the savings of that work to inform future [building codes] or future grant programs. It’s going to be a few years of data collection before we can really say what the dollar per gallon cost is.”
Jenna Battson, the CWCB’s outdoor water conservation coordinator, said the special turf program has other benefits that include public education. She cites a California study that showed homeowners in neighborhoods where turf replacement programs were underway, often attracted new players to the effort.
“Many things can be true at the same time,” Battson said. “And there are behavioral shifts and status quo shifts that are harder to quantify. A study out of California found that for every 100 people who participated, another 30 neighbors converted as well. It’s called the neighbor effect.”
In Aurora, which enacted one of the state’s first major turf replacement regulations in 2022, the state grant is being used to help underserved communities save water.
“One of the biggest challenges of traditional grant programs is you often miss underserved communities because the customer cost can be quite high,” said Tim York, Aurora’s water conservation manager. “Equity is big in conservation programs and we wanted to make sure we’re offering something for everyone. This funding has helped us expand that program so it is more impactful.”
Adding more scale to statewide turf replacement programs is key to Resource Central’s latest grant. That organization will use its nearly $500,000 award to work with homeowners associations and other large property owners, training them on how to assess the best way to replace nonfunctional turf and to improve watering systems to gain as much water savings as possible.
“You could spend your $40,000 on replacing turf, but maybe there is other low-hanging fruit, like fixing your watering system, that would allow them to make smarter decisions with their finances,” said Kate Larson, director of energy and water conservation programs at Resource Central.
Looking ahead, anyone still interested in winning state financial help to replace grass and improve sprinkler systems can reach out to the CWCB. Battson said the agency has $474,000 left in the current funding pool, but it expects the money will go fast. All funds have to be spent by 2028.
“I would be very surprised if there is any funding left over,” Battson said. “The demand is high.”
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