First Aired in July 2009. This news segment features a synthetic lawn installation by HomeTurf®. News 8 as well as the home owners discuss the drought, water rationing benefits of a fake grass lawn and lead content in artificial turf. The news story was titled "The Grass is always greener when its Fake"

Transcript:

Channel 8 News Anchor:
The drought and water rationing is turning some lawns brown across san diego. We meet a couple in Alpine thats come up with a way to keep it green. I'm meteorologist Shawn Styles…I'll have the story coming up on News 8.

Channel 8 News Anchor:
They may be necessary but the effects are not so pretty

Channel 8 News Anchor:
Mandatory water cuts are already turning lawns around town…brown,  so how can you keep yours green?
News 8 Shawn Styles has one local family's answer.

Shawn Styles:
Well at first glance it looks like one of the greenest lawns you've ever seen but in reality it's not grass, it's technology that's helping the Lang family save water, time and money.

David Lang:
Well it has to be trimmed, obviously it has to be watered…..

Shawn Styles:
For David Lang his natural lawn was a chore.

David Lang:
I spent at least an hour a week mowing it, trimming it, and then sometimes I had to ummm…do extra work
like fertilize it, pull weeds, re-sod it and things like that…

Shawn Styles:
Even with the extra effort the Langs where never happy.

Rosie Lang:
We had struggled every spring with fungus and dry spots so our lawn would just look horrible.

Shawn Styles:
So this May they had HomeTurf® install a Synthetic Lawn.

Rosie Lang:
It just looks so great.

David Lang:
Beautiful…it's a no brainer…..we come home and its all trimmed and green…and we love it.

Shawn Styles:
Here's so photos David took of the installation.

Shawn Styles:
First the old lawn was taken out and the soil was removed and then gravel and decomposed granite replaced it, followed by the turf. In the past lead has been a concern in synthetic turfs. The HomeTurf® tested out at less than .5 parts per million. The EPA limit is 5 parts per million. With their new turf the Langs are looking to save on their water bill.

David Lang:
I expect to save at least a third, thats just my projection. I've talked with some people in the complex that have saved actually half on their water bill.

Shawn Styles:
While David isn't spending time on the lawn any more Rosie's keeping him busy

Rosie Lang:
His chores inside are the dishes and vacuuming so….hahaha…so he has a lot more time to do that now.

Shawn Styles:
Now we've heard a lot of good things about this artificial turf but one thing you got to keep in mind is it can get pretty hot but as far as David is concerned it can get as hot as it wants he'll never have to cut it again. We'll send it back to you in the studio.

Channel 8 News Anchor:
Alright Shawn…the cost averages between 9 to 12 dollars a square foot. One thousand square feet can be installed in a day.