
Amid drought, Austin eyes smaller, more water efficient lawns
With Lakes Travis and Buchanan – Austin’s main sources of drinking water – 58% empty amid a historic drought, city officials are considering new strategies to conserve water used to irrigate lawns.
Reducing minimum lot sizes
32% of Austin’s water is used to water lawns, a luxury we can increasingly ill afford. In part to rein in the profligate use of water, the City Council will soon consider a measure to reduce the minimum lot size of single family homes. The current standards require lots to be at least 5750 square feet, which generally results in bigger yards with non-native turf grass using more water. A 2007 study found that water use in single family units in the Phoenix metro area increased by 1.8 percent for each 1,000-square foot increase in average lot size. A 2019 study found that in Austin each 1% increase in lot size increased summer water use by 0.32%.
Austin has the highest percentage of big-lot homes among the four major metro areas of Texas, with 6.6 percent of single-family homes on 5-acre lots or more. The city’s water use increases by 49 percent in the summer when lawn watering and other outdoor water uses peak; reducing summertime outdoor water use by a quarter could save nearly 14 million gallons of water each year.
After reducing their minimum lot size, the city of Las Vegas saw a steady drop in average water use. Smaller lot sizes could similarly help Austin lower water demand and reduce pressure on the city’s precarious water supply.
Water efficient landscape design and irrigation
The other critical way to conserve water in our yards is to promote the use of water efficient Xeriscape landscape design and irrigation practices. Landscapes composed of grass and plants from wetter climates, such as Kentucky Bluegrass and St. Augustine grass – some of the most common types of lawn grasses – cannot survive in central Texas without copious amounts of water.
The city is considering an Irrigation and Landscape Ordinance, which would require yards of new single family homes to use water efficient plants, inspections of irrigation systems to reduce water waste, and new rainwater harvesting incentives.
Building more compactly on smaller lots, using drought tolerant plants, and making sure our irrigation systems work properly will decrease water demand, keeping more water in our lakes and rivers for people and wildlife alike. We can’t control when it rains, but we can control how we use water.
Updates

Energy Conservation & Efficiency
2.3 million families used efficiency tax credit to reduce energy costs in 2023

Gulf gets an unusual visit from two right whales

How solar and sheep can support each other

Energy Conservation & Efficiency
Efficiency tax credits helped 350,000 new homes be more energy efficient in 2023
