Soaking up gallons of water in an otherwise arid environment, patches of grass that speckle the landscape in Las Vegas use up 14 gallons of water per person per day–15% of the water consumption in the area.

But the city water officials want to change that by banning ornamental grasses, becoming the first large municipality in the nation to undertake the measure to preserve water in a desert region, ABC News reports.  The ban would not impact grass grown for sports fields or parks, but it would require the removal and replacement of a total of eight square miles of grasses on areas people don’t walk on like office parks and highway median strips.

“The public perception outside of Las Vegas is certainly much different — and has been for a long time — than the water conservation ethic within the community,” said Colby Pellegrino, Southern Nevada Water Authority water resources director.

The plan is to have the Nevada legislature provide funding for the replacement of the turf with native and other succulent plants that are less a strain on the municipal water supply.  Business parks that switch to less water-dependent landscaping would receive one-time tax credits and support of government horticulturalists to aid in design.  In the Las Vegas plan, homeowners would get up to three dollars per square foot to replace existing lawns.

Water is becoming an increasingly valuable commodity in the American west and southwest, with disputes between states, counties and municipalities more regularly heading to courts for resolution.  During the 2020 Supreme Court session, at least two interstate cases related to water rights were heard before the Court.

Las Vegas had a record 240 days in 2020 without any measurable rainfall, and the flow of the Colorado River is in doubt, due to reduced rainfall in the region and agricultural operations upstream siphoning off water.