In urban areas of Texas, about 50 percent of the municipal water supply is used for landscape and garden watering. Much of that water runs off the land, eroding depleted and unprotected soils that are unable to absorb it. The excess sediment from your lawn and many other yards can smother aquatic life in the receiving bodies of water.
Excess sediment can also increase the cost of operating water supply reservoirs.
Costly synthetic fertilizers and pesticides are applied to compensate for the loss of nutrients and protection once provided by organic debris and rich soil life. Surprising as it may seem, residential users apply more pounds per acre of these chemicals than farmers do-often to the point of disrupting beneficial soil life. As your soil loses its organic matter, it allows more of these chemicals to run off and wash through it -contributing to the pollution of lakes, streams, and underground water. In excess, these pollutants can harm aquatic life or contaminate the food chain. The extra water and chemicals used to sustain gardens and landscapes in depleted soil cost many more millions.