Jean Orban thought she had found a simple solution to her green grass quandary.
The Garden Grove resident considered having a healthy, pretty lawn the mark of being a good neighbor -- plus, residents who let their lawns go brown can be fined by the city. But she wanted to spare her husband the Sunday morning ritual of mowing the lawn, and she thought it was a waste to use hundreds of gallons of water to keep the grass thriving.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday, August 21, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 2 inches; 77 words Type of Material: Correction
Artificial lawns: A caption that accompanied an article in the Aug. 9 California section about Orange County cities that ban artificial lawns said that Jean Orban, who was shown in the photograph, said Garden Grove's ban on fake lawns had cost her a $300 rebate from the O.C. water district. Also, the article said Orban's rebate would have been from the Orange County Municipal Water District. The agency involved is the Municipal Water District of Orange County.
So she had an artificial lawn installed. The blanket of bright green that stretches from her patio to the street always looks freshly mowed, and her water bill is about the price of a couple of bottles of Dasani.
Alas, Garden Grove doesn't share Orban's affection for her fake lawn. As she soon discovered, the city bans artificial turf. Although the city has yet to take any action against her, others who installed the lawns said they were warned that they will be fined.
And that regulation puts the city at odds with the Orange County Municipal Water District, which offers rebates to those who install faux grass.
"We want people to change their behavior and use more water-efficient products for landscaping," water district spokeswoman Darcy Burke said of the rebates.
Because of the ban, Orban was denied her $300 rebate.
"I couldn't believe it," she said of Garden Grove's mandate. "Our governor says we need to save water."
Garden Grove is one of five cities in Orange County -- the others are Stanton, La Palma, Orange and Santa Ana -- that for years have barred residents from putting in fake lawns. Although most of the resistance has to do with the look of fake grass -- particularly the older imitations -- there have also been concerns over the level of lead found in some artificial grass. A U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission report focusing on athletic fields concluded, however, that young children are not at risk from exposure to lead in newer artificial turf fields.
Officials with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, a consortium of 26 cities and water districts in the region, said they didn't know of any cities outside Orange County that ban fake lawns.
In Garden Grove, Orban isn't the only one baffled by the ban.
"It never occurred to me that in a state that has an extreme water shortage . . . every city wouldn't do everything they possibly could to save water," said Cookie Smith, a Garden Grove resident who is leading efforts to get the city's ban lifted. She may be gaining some traction: Two months into a state-declared drought, officials in the cities where artificial grass is prohibited are reconsidering the ban.
