OGDEN, Utah — As Utah faces an unprecedented water shortage, renters are caught between lease clauses for lawn upkeep and the urgent call for conservation.
Mike Fowles, who has rented a home in Ogden for years, wrote to us about the difficult position he and other tenants are in due to the state's severe drought. His rental company requires him to keep the lawn on his corner lot healthy and green, an expectation that is reasonable in normal years but problematic during a water crisis.
Despite paying for professional lawn services, he is expected to water the lawn as much as necessary to keep it green. This puts him in a dilemma: either he conserves water in line with state and city guidelines and risks financial penalties for a less-than-perfect lawn, or he uses excessive amounts of water to meet his lease obligations, contributing to the water shortage.
"We are coming off the worst winter in Utah’s history,” said Fowles.
Fowles said his lease states that tenants are responsible for "maintaining the health and aesthetic of the lawn." This put him in a difficult position as the state grapples with a severe drought.
"As renters, we're between a rock and a hard place," he said.
Fowles is conscious of the need to conserve. His neighborhood uses secondary water from Pine View Reservoir, and he's noticed new meters being installed to help residents track their usage.
“On top of several years already, water shortages. And with our snowpack that doesn’t exist this time in early April, there’s not much hope coming,” said Fowles.
His concerns align with the message from "Slow the Flow," a statewide water conservation campaign.
“This is not the year to go for that emerald, green lawn all season,” said
For Cynthia Bee, a sustainable landscapes expert with the campaign. She noted that for most Utahns, outdoor irrigation makes up about 65% of their annual water use.
“This is not the year to go for that emerald, green lawn all season,” she said.
Bee said homeowners can use the state's landscape incentive program to replace grass with drought-tolerant plants or install new technology, such as smart sprinkler controllers.
“Those smart controllers will call into the local weather station and override your system based on real conditions in your area,” said Bee.
But for renters like Fowles, making those significant changes isn't always an option. He hopes for a collaborative approach to find a long-term solution.
“You know we’re all in this boat together,” Fowles said. “We might be able to help long term, down the road.”
