EPA’s “WaterSense” Landscaping Specification: A One-Size-Fits-All That Doesn’t Fit
Why environmentalists, home owners, home builders, naturalists and landscape professionals should be alarmed about national standards on home landscaping
By Kris Kiser, EVP at the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is set up to protect water in all forms, from ground to underground to water coming out of one’s tap. WaterSense, a partnership program sponsored by the EPA, was set up to work with local water utilities, product manufacturers, and retailers on the use of water-efficient products and practices among consumer and commercial audiences. Reinforced through a ‘WaterSense’ label, WaterSense, according to the EPA, “helps consumers easily identify water-efficient products in the marketplace.” WaterSense engineering standards for low flow toilets, shower heads, irrigation equipment and other engineered products are practical and measureable.
A disturbing development has taken place in the WaterSense program that threatens to undermine the very water quality standards the agency was established to protect and potentially undermine the well-deserved value of the WaterSense label. Under its WaterSense new home specification, EPA developed and released draft specifications for new home construction. Home builders that follow the specs will be able to market a ‘WaterSense ®’ home. The draft specs have restrictions on the amount of turf grass that can be used. These specs are intended for implementation nationwide, border to border, coast to coast - but there are no allowances for regional differences in climate or turf species – it’s a one size fits all type of specification. The amount of grass that can be planted on a Portland, OR home site would be the same as Las Vegas. New home sites are limited to 40% grass use on the site’s landscapeable area. Imagine a Tucson desert landscape in Seattle and Boston neighborhoods. Extreme desert locales would be allowed 40% turfgrass use on a home lot where it should not be used which would require massive watering. Our country is simply too large and complex climatically with multiple climatic zones for a single-national standard on grass use for home lawns.
In effect, the EPA singles out turfgrass as environmentally harmful as a water hog despite the fact that drought resistant turfgrasses are widely available and large areas of the country do not have rainfall or water availability issues. Further, the myriad environmental benefits of turfgrass—from its well documented carbon absorption and sequestering properties, superior water filtration, runoff and erosion control capabilities, dust and particulate matter capture properties and its ability to combat the heat island effect and cool our urban environments. These benefits are somehow completely ignored along with lifestyle issues associated with a home’s yard for family use and pets. Plants are real, living things not engineered or manufactured to a specific standard but ever changing and adaptable to variable climatic conditions.
The key is to plant the right plant in the right place to maximize its environmental benefit not eliminate them. Water should be used in a responsible manner. Lush green lawns of Kentucky Bluegrass may not be appropriate for desert landscapes and the landscape industry should work toward best management practices that support maximizing environmental benefits in a responsible manner. EPA recommends mulch and artificial turf over grass green space that breathes…mulch and plastic grass doesn’t breathe, filter air and water pollutants, produce oxygen or sequester carbon dioxide.
EPA has held several public hearings on its WaterSense new home specification and at each one; these landscape criteria have come under attack as being arbitrary, non-responsive to local and regional variances and not based on science. Turfgrass utilization has not been evaluated in an holistic environmental assessment. While the agency has altered the draft specification to reflect other industries’ concerns, the turf restrictions remain in place. EPA plans to go final with its WaterSense new home specification in November.
Why the alarm bells? If these criteria are adopted in their current form, they will have adverse environmental consequences, may actually create scenarios that use more water not less and severely depress jobs in a host of businesses involved with the $150 billion a year lawn and landscape industry.
What can you do?
We urgently recommend you to write to your Congressional Representative and Senators asking him or her to raise these issues with EPA and ask that the agency set aside the WaterSense outdoor landscape criteria for now, evaluate the science and work with stakeholders to improve the product. Contact information for your representatives can be found at http://www.senate.gov/ and http://www.house.gov/ or you can contact me.
When properly managed and maintained,
the benefits of turfgrass are multifold:
Captures Water Runoff and Dust
·
Turfgrass does an excellent job of
capturing water runoff and lessening dust and
particulate matter pollution, versus
alternatives such as hard surfaces, mulched
areas and impervious or bare surfaces.
According to a Council for Agricultural
Science and Technology (CAST) 2006 Publication,
turfgrass decreases dust emissions and for
controlling soil erosion, a live, functioning
grass cover, including urban lawns, is a
cost-effective option, since a grass root
system is one of the most effective in soil
stabilization because of the fibrous, dense
character of its roots.
Lessens Heat Island Effect
· Turfgrass lessens the “heat island” effect, especially in urban areas. Urban areas generally have higher temperatures than surrounding rural areas, well known as the urban "heat island" effect. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) states that “the annual mean air temperature of a city with 1 million people or more can be 1.8–5.4°F (1–3°C) warmer than its surroundings. In the evening, the difference can be as high as 22°F (12°C).”
Captures, Stores Carbon in Roots
·
Properly managed turf areas are significant
carbon sinks. When kept in a growing
state, carbon sequestration in turf areas can
range anywhere from four to seven times the
carbon emissions, according to a report,
Technical Assessment of the Carbon
Sequestration Potential of Managed Turfgrass in
the United States by Dr. Ranajit (Ron)
Sahu. See study at:
http://www.opei.org/ht/d/sp/i/1428/pid/1428
Boosts the Oxygen Footprint
· Turfgrass can boost your oxygen footprint. Compared to bare ground, non-green areas, and lawn substitutes, such as painted concrete or even artificial turf, actual grass and green areas generate oxygen. For example, a turf area 50' x 50' produces enough oxygen to meet the everyday needs of a family of four and each acre of grass produces enough oxygen for 64 people a day. (Source: http://www.turfgrasssod.org/lawninstitute/environmental_benefits.htm)
In its current form, the landscape
criteria is simply bad public policy that will
produce negative outcomes for our environment
and will eliminate the green jobs for which
this Administration has been vocally
supportive.
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Kris Kiser is the Executive Vice President of the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute (OPEI). OPEI is the international trade association representing the $15 billion landscape, forestry, utility and lawn and garden equipment manufacturing industry. OPEI is a recognized standards….