126 MILLION ADDITIONAL DOLLARS IN REBATE AND INCENTIVE PROGRAMS JUST BECAME AVAILABLE TO BUSINESS CUSTOMERS IN MWD’S 19 MILLION PERSON SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SERVICE AREA
When added to new “performance based” programs, the time to consider water conservation projects hasn’t been this good in a decade
SCGA has done much in recent years to tout those rebate and incentive programs increasingly available to the golf community for projects other than turf removal – efforts at this point mostly involving turf replacement, that is, the re-grassing of golf courses with species of Bermuda and other grasses that use less water and depending upon the specific climate zone, often remain sufficiently “green” in the winter to eliminate overseeding, which is a water consumptive practice. But efforts as well involving soil amending technologies that reduce water consumption through other means.
Along with maximally efficient irrigation systems, weather stations (CIMIS), sophisticated technological tools, and deficit irrigation strategies, turf removal has proven a valuable card in the game of ever increasing water footprint reduction. But once those cards are played, particularly the turf removal card, the game needs additional cards if it hopes to continue the trajectory of consistent water footprint reduction that it has come to understand as central to long-term sustainability.
That’s why the SCGA and its great partner in all things water conservation, the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA), have long advocated for rebate and incentive programs for water conservation strategies and programs other than mere turf removal. Ten years ago, those efforts were universally met with indifference at best, opposition at worst. But today, led by the Southern California Metropolitan Water District (MWD), which is the wholesaler to 19 million Southern California water customers, and followed by the largest retailer in the MWD service area, Los Angeles Water & Power (LADWP), there are programs that may all have different names, but can all be categorized under the same heading of “performance based incentives.” That is, these two agencies (and yes if the golf course is in the Los Angeles service area, it can double dip) offer rebates not up front as with their traditional turf removal programs, but rather after the fact, when the savings promised by whatever specific program a golf course has pursued to reduce water use has indeed reduced water use as promised in the rebate/incentive application.
Other water agencies (wholesalers and retailers) are taking serious looks at what MWD and LADWP have been able to accomplish with the introduction of this new card in the water conservation game. Indeed, El Caballero Country Club in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley was one of four (4) businesses recognized by MWD last year as a “Conservation Leader” in part for making use of that agency’s performance-based rebate program.
All to the good and one of the many reasons that SCGA has spent the last 15 years bringing the region’s water providers together with their golf course customers – on a recurring basis through various versions of “golf & water task forces” in Los Angeles, Coachella Valley, Inland Empire, San Diego County, Ventura County, and soon Orange County – and on a sporadic basis in smaller markets.
And that’s why we are happy to share with you some additional good news regarding rebate/incentive programs in the region – not a new program, but the addition of significant dollars to traditional turf removal programs. Not all golf courses have finished playing their turf removal cards; indeed, some have yet to play any.
Driven by a desire to assist those businesses and other commercial customers that are going to be required to stop irrigating “non-functional turf” with potable water as of January 1, 2027, MWD has now raised to $7 per square foot the amount the agency is prepared to pay commercial customers for replacing that “non-functional” turf with California friendly drought tolerant species. This is aimed squarely and exclusively at commercial/business customers. The residential rebate remains at $3 per square foot.
With LADWP offering $5 rebates, Orange County now upping its rebate to $7, and San Diego County Water Authority maintaining “healthy” incentives for commercial customers, albeit in all cases limited by total acreage, now would be a good time for those golf facilities that have been thinking about removing turf to perhaps think about pulling the trigger.
Keep in mind that the state legislation that prompted MWD to go to $7 per square foot (AB 1572) does NOT apply to any portion of a golf course that is the playable surface of a golf course (tees, greens, surrounds, fairways, roughs) nor does it apply to any portion of a golf facility that can be characterized as an “event space” (public or private); it applies only to what MWD defines as turf that one only stands upon to mow it.
Those of you who are either policy wonks or possessive of great memories may remember that the California Alliance for Golf (CAG) was successful in injecting into AB 1572 language that specifically referenced “golf courses” as part of the universe of “functional” turf to which the admonition re the use of potable water does NOT apply. California law may define golf courses as “functional turf,” but as so many in the environmental community routinely refer to golf courses as “frivolous” or “non-functional,” references that are routinely carried in the media organs, the significance of injecting those two little words, “golf courses,” into the text of the law cannot be overstated.
Of course, there are golf courses in Southern California that maintain nonfunctional turf in and around their clubhouses and parking lots that is now irrigated with potable water, and there are golf courses that are thinking about removing additional turf. This moment is not quite like the 2015-2016 moment when the rebates literally flooded the region (excuse the really bad pun), but it is the first moment since then that the focus is again on providing substantial incentives to commercial water users to reduce their use – for golf courses through traditional turf removal to be sure, but for other means that a golf course believes will result in trackable water savings as well.
MWD has been able to up its commercial turf removal rebate to $7 due to a $30 million grant from the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and a $96 million grant from the federal Bureau of Reclamation’s Lower Colorado Basin System Conservation and Efficiency Program.
The websites of these agencies (wholesale & retail) have all the information you need to proceed, but don’t hesitate to reach out to the SCGA Public Affairs team if you would like assistance in digesting it all. Director Kevin Fitzgerald can be reached at kfitzgerald@scga.org and Manager Morris Thomas can be reached at mthomas@scga.org.
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The 2025 legislative session ended early Saturday morning, having been extended one day from the usual Friday finish to accommodate some very late breaking and interesting developments. After we have had ample time to digest some of these more “interesting developments” we’ll run a second newsletter this month to wrap things up.