Mission Springs Water District Board Approves “Turf Rebate” Program
At the regular Board meeting of the Mission Springs Water District (MSWD), a plan to reduce turf in the service area was approved by unanimous vote.
The action created the “Turf Rebate Program” in anticipation of funding coming through a successful grant proposal sponsored by the Coachella Valley Regional Water Management Group (CVRWMG).
The funding-approximately $500,000-comes from Round Three of the Proposition 84 Water Bond and was specifically targeted towards “drought mitigation.”
MSWD is one of six members of the CVRWMG who, along with dozens of stakeholders throughout the Coachella Valley, have been successful in obtaining over $10 million in Prop 84 grant funds for projects throughout the valley.
MSWD’s Turf Rebate Program will provide property owners with rebates of $2.00 per square foot for turf removal and conversion to desert-friendly landscaping to a maximum of $3,000 per residential property and $10,000 per commercial or institutional project within the MSWD service area.
MSWD has opted to use a “lottery style” program which will launch as follows:
May/June 2015: Notice of the program will be sent on customer bills.
June 1: Applications and program information will be available at www.mswd.org/conservation, or from the District offices (66575 Second Street, Desert Hot Springs).
July 13 at 5 p.m. is the application deadline. Qualified applicants will be placed into a “pool” for the rebate lottery.
July 15 the district will conduct the lottery from the pool of qualified applicants until the funds are exhausted.
If any funds remain after the first lottery round, the application period will reopen for another month.
Commercial/institutional projects will be drawn separately from residential.
Customers are required to provide a 30% match for their projects.
A pre- and post-project inspection is required.
MSWD has adopted the turf rebate program to assist in reaching conservation goals set down by the Governor through executive order B-29-15 which requires a state-wide 25% reduction in water use.
If all turf rebate funds are expended, the District should realize water a use reduction of about 1 million gallons per month.
