AURORA, Colo — In a state that's no stranger to drought, the City of Aurora is doing what it can to save water.
This summer, it's ripping up about 20 acres of traditional grass in public spaces and replacing it with water-wise native grass. That's about 15 football fields worth of grass conversion.
Kentucky blue grass is typically found in lawns and many public parks. However, it needs a lot of water to stay healthy.
"In an average year in Aurora, we're talking about, at minimum, 28 inches of irrigation water, which is about 17.5 gallons per square foot. So every 1,000 square feet of space, you have, at minimum, 17,500 gallons," said Tim York, manager of water conservation with Aurora Water.
The city is ripping up that old grass and putting in something new: native grass and Bermuda grass in some areas.
"Each site will be using 70% less water," explained John Wesolowski, the parks and forestry manager with the City of Aurora. "To put it in perspective, we'll be able to fill the Beck Pool about 74 times with water that we'll be saving."
With some natives grasses, once they are fully established, they may not need to be irrigated at all, according to Aurora Water.
Aurora's Parks, Recreation & Open Space department said it's tough to put a dollar amount on how much they'll save because of the changes, but they say the money and time it takes to currently maintain those areas will go back into local parks.
For some of the taller native grass, frequent mowing will no longer be necessary.
"It actually allows us to be able to maintain our parks where people are going to enjoy and have the major recreation," said Wesolowski.
The department is focusing on converting areas of public parks that don't usually get a lot of foot traffic but were sucking up water to be maintained.
"For a long time, that was just how cities developed. It was, 'We're going to put blue grass everywhere.' And now we're kind of paying that price," said York. "Now we realize we probably shouldn't have done it that way, and make that change so that we're not only asking new development to make these changes to develop sustainably, but we're leading the way with our own properties, too."
This year, native grass conversions will happen for landscaping at the city's central facilities, Arkansas Pond, Beck Recreation Center, the median at S. Buckley Road near E. Iliff, Cottonwood Park, La Parquita Park, Lowry Park, Mexico Radio Tower, South Satellite Shop, Summer Valley Park and Triangle Park. Bermuda grass will be planted in parts of Del Mar Park, Jewell Wetlands and Parklane Park.
Those projects will cost roughly $700,000. The funds were included in the Parks, Recreation and Open Space department's capital improvements budget for water efficiency landscape.
