Nevada Law Mandates Nonfunctional Turf Removal by 2027 | The Locally Times
A 2021 state law requires businesses and government agencies to remove ornamental turf by 2027, offering rebates and a $100-per-tree bonus for replacement landscaping.
A Nevada state law enacted in 2021 will prohibit the irrigation of nonfunctional grass with Colorado River water in Southern Nevada, with the ban taking full effect at the start of 2027. The law targets ornamental turf on commercial, multi-family, and government properties serviced by Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) member agencies, but explicitly exempts grass at single-family residences. According to the SNWA, which is responsible for implementing the policy, the measure is part of a conservation effort spanning more than 25 years to reduce community water use. The five-year period between the law's passage and its 2027 effective date provides a window for affected property owners to comply. However, the full financial and logistical scope of this landscape transformation remains undefined in public documents. ## Defining 'Nonfunctional' Turf To implement the law, the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s Board of Directors established a citizens advisory committee to define “nonfunctional” grass. The ban also applies to turf in medians, roundabouts, business frontages, and other areas adjacent to buildings that serve no recreational or practical purpose. The responsibility for interpreting and enforcing this distinction falls to the SNWA and its member agencies, including the Las Vegas Valley Water District and the cities of Henderson and North Las Vegas. The provided records do not name the members of the citizens advisory committee that crafted these definitions, nor do they detail the committee's process. ## Rebates Offered, but Total Costs and Savings Remain Unknown To facilitate turf removal, the Southern Nevada Water Authority directs affected property owners to its Water Smart Landscapes rebate program. According to the SNWA website, commercial, multi-family, and government property owners can apply for the program, which provides cash for each square foot of grass removed and replaced with desert landscaping. As an additional incentive, the program offers a $100 bonus for every new tree installed during the conversion. This policy aims to mitigate the urban heat island effect by encouraging the planting of a more drought-tolerant and shade-providing canopy, effectively shifting a portion of the financial burden of compliance from property owners back to the water authority. However, key financial details are absent from publicly available documents. The SNWA’s website does not specify the total budget for the rebate program, so records do not indicate if funds are sufficient to cover all applications. Furthermore, the records contain no projections on the total water savings expected from the ban. The total compliance costs for businesses and government entities, beyond what the rebate may cover, are also not estimated in the documents. However, the linked Portable Document Format (PDF) file on the SNWA’s website is corrupted, unreadable, and contains no discernible text. As a result, the full recommendations shaping the implementation of this valley-wide conservation mandate are not publicly accessible. The public cannot review the detailed reasoning, potential dissenting opinions, or specific implementation steps advised by the committee. The absence of this report obscures critical details of the mandate's rollout. The SNWA's summary also fails to provide the specific legislative bill number from the 2021 session, hindering public efforts to review the original state law. Finally, the available documents do not outline enforcement mechanisms or penalties for properties that fail to comply with the irrigation ban after the 2027 deadline.