Where in America is lawn irrigation the biggest drain on consumers’ wallets?
To mark World Water Day on March 22, Lawn Love ranked 2024’s Most Expensive Cities for Watering the Lawn.
We compared nearly 500 of the biggest U.S. cities based on 3 categories. We looked at the affordability of local water bills and average yard sizes. We also considered factors that would increase the cost of irrigation, such as drought susceptibility and watering requirements for common grass types, among 9 total metrics.
See how your city compares in our ranking below. To learn how we ranked the cities, see our methodology.
Contents
City rankings
See how each city fared in our ranking:
Top 5 close up
Check out the slideshow below for highlights on each of our 5 most expensive cities.
Key insights
Cities out west — such as in California, Arizona, and Nevada — face among the costliest conditions for lawn watering due to hot weather, low precipitation rates, and common grass types like perennial ryegrass requiring more irrigation. The Golden State claims more than half of the 100 most expensive cities.
Over 40 million people depend on water from the Colorado River — which is amid a megadrought — including residents of the 3 previously mentioned Lower Basin states.
However, the “Law of the River” is changing as states, tribes, and Mexico engage in a turf war over the strained water source. In 2023, California, Arizona, and Nevada committed to conserving 3 million acre-feet of water and recently proposed an allocation agreement to help cut water usage.
The grass is greener — without needing to spend more green — up north. Cities in 12 Northern states — like Michigan, Massachusetts, and Oregon — finish in the most affordable half of our ranking, due to moderate temperatures, more frequent precipitation, and low watering requirements for the regions’ most common grass types.
Splash through more local insights below.
Expert take
Ignoring local water restrictions can land homeowners and local business owners in hot water, with costly financial penalties.
We turned to a panel of experts to learn more about water conservation policies in the U.S. and how they can impact homeowners. Read through their irrigation insights below.
- How have watering restrictions and bans on grass lawns impacted homeowners?
- What factors determine the local cost of water to consumers?
- What are your 5 best tips for minimizing the cost of lawn irrigation?
- Drip irrigation system vs. sprinkler system: Which is better and why?
- Climate change, inflation, and high energy costs are driving up Americans’ water bills. What measures can various levels of government take to lower water prices and keep them under control?
- How much water and expense do drought-tolerant grass types really save homeowners?
Ask The Experts
R. Troy Peters, P.E., Ph.D.
Professor and Extension Irrigation Engineer
Washington State University, Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center
How have watering restrictions and bans on grass lawns impacted homeowners?
They haven’t been able to have the verdantly green and lush lawns that they want. These green lawns can create local cooling and make living environments cleaner and more inviting.
What factors determine the local cost of water to consumers?
It depends on where they get their water from. Municipal water pricing is usually on a per-gallon basis. Every municipality prices these slightly differently and the prices are usually based on their costs. This is usually water from garden hoses connected to their home water supplies and is potable water and thus is higher cost due to the higher quality standards.
Some irrigators have access to a separate supply of water from an irrigation district. This water does not come through the home and thus is not potable, and often doesn’t have incremental pricing (‘just don’t use more than a given amount,” for example) and is therefore less expensive.
What are your five best tips for minimizing the cost of lawn irrigation?
1. The water needs of grass changes drastically throughout the season. Thus, don’t use a set schedule for your lawn that doesn’t change throughout the season. Most home lawn and garden irrigators over-irrigate in the spring, they might under-irrigate during the middle part of the summer, and then over-irrigate again in the fall.
The times that they over-irrigate, they are spending more money for water than is necessary and they can leach nutrients (primarily the nitrate form of nitrogen) out of their soil profile and move it towards the groundwater. Estimates of grasswater use (evapotranspiration) are often available for free online depending on your state.
2. Keep your irrigation system repaired, adjusted, and in good working order. Non-uniform irrigation means that more water must be applied everywhere in order to adequately irrigate the spots that get less water.
3. Get a good irrigation system designed by someone who knows what they’re doing. You pay the penalty for poor irrigation system designs for the entire life of the irrigation system.
4. Don’t irrigate every day. Irrigating every day results in a lot of water lost to evaporation from a wet soil and grass surface. It also encourages grass diseases. Figure out how much water your soil can hold, apply that much water all in one irrigation event, and then don’t irrigate again until that water has been used up.
Most soils can hold about 1 inch of water in the shallower root zone of lawn grass. This can be much less for sandy soils. It takes anywhere from 4 days to 3 weeks to use 1 inch of water, depending on where you live, what time of year it is, and what the weather is like. When making irrigation timer modifications for the changing seasons and weather, change the interval between irrigations instead of the irrigation run times (how much water is applied each time).
5. Let your grass get slightly water-stressed during the middle of the summer. It will save a lot of water.
Drip irrigation system vs. sprinkler system: Which is better and why?
Drip irrigation is significantly more efficient, but it is expensive to set up and maintain. It makes much more sense in beds with perennial bushes with nothing in between and is more difficult in areas where everything needs to be irrigated (like lawns).
Buried drip irrigation can have issues with plugging, primarily due to unclean water, or root intrusion. Unclean water is most common in non-potable water supplies and root intrusion is most common when deficit irrigating — roots go looking for water and find it in the drip emitters.
Drip irrigation can reduce water requirements by 20% to 40% depending on the climate and type of sprinkler irrigation system they are replacing.
Climate change, inflation, and high energy costs are driving up Americans’ water bills. What measures can various levels of government take to lower water prices and keep them under control?
Most governments aren’t charging more than their costs for supplying the water at the flow and quality levels that their customers want. Therefore, the only way to significantly modify water costs is for irrigators to lower their water use. High water prices are the biggest motivation for conservation.
How much water and expense do drought-tolerant grass types really save homeowners?
Not much if they are irrigated the same as regular grass varieties. Drought-tolerant grass varieties specialize in being able to survive the water being turned off for long periods of time. They usually survive by going dormant. But this dormant phase makes lawns look brown and dead and homeowners don’t like it, so they keep irrigating them.
Research shows that water use can be cut by up to ½ by deficit irrigating lawn grasses and they will recover with drought-tolerant varieties recovering much better from these droughts. They look bad though and home-owners aren’t getting out of lawns what they want.
Charles Swanson, M.Agr.
Extension Program Specialist II – Landscape Irrigation, TCEQ Licensed Irrigator#16931 / Certified Ag Irrigation Specialist
Texas A&M University, Texas A&M Agrilife Extension Service, Biological & Agricultural Engineering Department
How have watering restrictions and bans on grass lawns impacted homeowners?
Watering restrictions have become a common occurrence across Texas. Historically, watering restrictions were typical primarily during drought periods, but we are seeing more cities and utilities implement permanent year-round watering restrictions — often limiting landscape irrigation to only 1 day a week or no more than 2 days a week.
Obviously, no one wants to have a dead lawn, so homeowners are becoming more receptive to incorporating water conservation technologies and practices into their landscapes.
What factors determine the local cost of water to consumers?
Traditionally water costs were based on recuperating the costs to pump, treat, and convey the water.
However, costs are increasing due to a growing population and an aging utility infrastructure. Developing newer water supplies and treatment facilities is expensive depending on the source. Additionally, older pipelines can begin to leak over time, requiring expensive infrastructure upgrade projects.
In the absence of state and federal funding, the bulk of these costs are passed down to the consumers.
What are your five best tips for minimizing the cost of lawn irrigation?
1. Irrigation system maintenance. Check the system regularly for leaks and damaged hardware that can waste water such as sprinklers irrigating streets and sidewalks.
2. Pressure regulation. Most residential irrigation systems do not require high pressures for operation. Operating sprinklers at pressures higher than recommended by the manufacturer can result in higher evaporation from misting sprinklers as well as wind drift losses. Operating at the correct pressure increases efficiency and reduces the amount of water needed to be applied to maintain a healthy landscape.
3. Seasonal irrigation scheduling. Water requirements vary throughout the year. Turn off the irrigation system in the winter when most plants are dormant. Spring rains can be more than sufficient to meet plant watering needs. In the summer, irrigate in the early morning so water can better infiltrate deeper into the soil and not evaporate at the surface.
4. Cycle soak and deeper watering. When irrigating, water deeply and less often. This helps encourage deeper root systems in plants which makes them more resilient during drought periods and able to maximize their storage of rainfall. When long daily irrigation runtimes are needed, divide the irrigation into 2 or 3 short cycles throughout the day that allow more time for water to infiltrate deeper into the soil with less chance of becoming runoff.
5. Incorporate newer technologies. Smart controllers and rain and soil moisture sensors can be great tools for preventing unnecessary watering.
Drip irrigation system vs. sprinkler system: Which is better and why?
Each type of system has its place in the landscape. Overall, drip irrigation has an advantage over sprinklers when it comes to application efficiency. When installed below the surface (subsurface) the water applied goes straight into the soil and the plants’ root zone. There are no losses due to wind or surface evaporation. However, drip systems can be very costly in larger turfgrass landscapes.
Sprinkler systems are often more cost-effective for larger spaces. High efficiencies can be achieved through proper design principles including proper spacing, pressure regulation, and incorporating multi-stream, multi-trajectory type sprinkler nozzles.
Climate change, inflation, and high energy costs are driving up Americans’ water bills. What measures can various levels of government take to lower water prices and keep them under control?
Conservation is always cheaper than having to develop new water supplies. Watering restrictions and improving infrastructure help, but also maximizing their reuse capabilities can reduce strains on the water system.
Using “reclaimed water” that has been treated for reuse can allow the higher quality treated water to be used for primary potable water needs such in the home for drinking, cooking, and cleaning.
How much water and expense do drought-tolerant grass types really save homeowners?
A healthy lawn can be maintained with less water than most people think.
A common overused saying is that turfgrass requires an inch of water a week. This can be true of turfs with “peak” water use which can occur around the end of July to early August over a 2-4 week period, but isn’t necessary the majority of the year.
Research and demonstrations have shown that many turfgrasses can be maintained with as little as half an inch a week much of the year.
It comes down to homeowner satisfaction. As turfgrasses stress in the summer and during drought periods they are naturally going to discolor and lose their green lushness. This doesn’t mean the grass has died but it is simply adapting to its current level of drought stress.
If homeowners are willing to accept this temporary decrease in plant quality during drought periods they can save significant amounts of water. These drought-tolerant grasses are also generally very quick to recover once it does rain.
Behind the ranking
First, we determined the factors (metrics) that are most relevant to rank the Most Expensive Cities for Watering the Lawn. We then assigned a weight to each factor based on its importance and grouped those factors into 3 categories: Cost Determinants, Cost, and Yard Size. The categories, factors, and their weights are listed in the table below.
For each of the 500 biggest U.S. cities, we then gathered data on each factor from the sources listed below the table. We eliminated 2 cities lacking sufficient data in a single category, resulting in a final sample size of 498 cities.
Finally, we calculated scores (out of 100 points) for each city to determine its rank in each factor, each category, and overall. A city’s Overall Score is the average of its scores across all factors and categories. The highest Overall Score ranked “Most Expensive” (No. 1) and the lowest “Most Affordable” (No. 498).
- The “Most Affordable” among individual factors may not be No. 498 due to ties.
- Water Requirement for Most Common Grass Type(s): Scores were awarded based on the level of watering required to maintain the health of the most common type(s) of grass in each city as follows:
- Light = 1 point
- Medium = 2 points
- High = 3 points
- Legality of Rainwater Harvesting in State: Scores were awarded based on legal leniency as follows:
- Restricted = 0 points
- Permit may be required = 0.5 points
- Some restrictions = 1 point
- No restrictions = 2 points
- Some restrictions but offers incentives = 2.5 points
- No restrictions and offers incentives = 3 points
- Drought Susceptibility: Calculated by FEMA, this index considers annualized frequency of and exposure to drought, as well as social vulnerability and community resilience factors.
Sources: Almanac, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Federal Housing Finance Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Nature’s Seed, U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and World Water Reserve
Use landscaping to lower your water bill
For a typical American family, 30% to 60% of their total residential water use is spent outside. According to experts, nearly 50% of that water is wasted due to evaporation and inefficient watering methods.
Meanwhile, water bills are soaring above other utilities, with a 43.2% increase in costs between 2012 and 2021, according to Bluefield Research.
To navigate low water levels and prevent periods of extended drought, many cities like those in the Tampa Bay region of Florida enforce lawn watering restrictions. Meanwhile others, like Las Vegas (No. 9) and Scottsdale, Arizona (No. 79), are combating water shortages with bans on decorative grass lawns.
There are many aspects to consider when revamping your lawn and landscape — water, soil types, sunlight, temperature, and more. Demystify your options and decrease your lawn’s water requirements — and overall climate impact — with help from our tips below.
Hire a local Lawn Love crew to design and install a water-wise lawn and landscape for your property.
Quotes from Lawn Love Editor-in-Chief Sharon Sullivan:
- Water bills are least affordable in 7 Texas cities, with Edinburg (No. 4), Missouri City (No. 92), and Pharr (No. 48) spending the highest portion of their household incomes on water — over 1% each.
- 21 Texas, 16 Colorado, and 6 Oklahoma cities tie with several other cities for growing the most water-dependent grass types.
- Seattle (No. 456) might have a rainy reputation, but 205 cities in our ranking are drenched with more showers. Florida and Gulf Coast cities like Mobile, Alabama (No. 240), and New Orleans (No. 421) soak up the most rain — over 3.5 inches per month, up to nearly 5.5 inches in Mobile.
- Greenville (No. 194) is the only North Carolina city to finish in the most expensive half of our ranking, with the least affordable water bills, the highest drought susceptibility, and the biggest yards out of all 13 Tar Heel State cities in our ranking.
- Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico face the lowest precipitation rates, with less than 1 inch of water per month — except in Arizona cities Tucson (No. 80) and Flagstaff (No. 492), which receive an average of 1.2 and 1.8 inches per month, respectively.
- Some states encourage rainwater harvesting, while others restrict the practice. Permits may be required to collect rainwater in Kansas and North Dakota.
Main Photo Credit: Images 1 and 2 by Karolina Grabowska via Pexels (cropped and overlaid)
Sav Maive
Sav Maive is a writer and director based in San Antonio. Sav is a graduate from the University of Virginia and is a loving cat and plant mom.