As Calgary endures a drought now several months old, reservoir levels have fallen far enough that municipal officials have prohibited residential lawn watering. Streets that were green a year ago have faded to a uniform brown, interrupted only where a resident continues watering in defiance of the restriction, as gardening enthusiast Owen Reid acknowledges doing, or where a property has been covered with synthetic turf. Priscilla Avila, a homeowner in the southwest, completed such an installation this spring and maintains that the considerable expense was its solitary drawback. "It's nylon, it's fake, but it rocks!

It looks like the real deal, it's always green, and it's super low maintenance. It's totally eco-friendly. No sprinkling, no pesticides. Just a bit of vacuuming." South of the border, drought-afflicted Arizona reimburses residents for the identical conversion, whereas Calgary is contemplating a different approach: municipal engineer Nadia Brunet has petitioned council to require a paid permit for any artificial lawn, with a penalty for non-compliance. "Edmonton already does exactly this, and for good reason. Fake turf has its upsides, but the fibre simply is not very permeable, meaning rain does not soak through it efficiently, and the plastic kind performs worse than the nylon.