The Clark County (Nev.) School District has earmarked nearly $300 million over the next six years to convert more of its high school sports fields to artificial turf.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that the work involves 9 million square feet of fields — primarily, soccer, baseball and softball — at fewer than 40 schools.
District officials say the project will save an estimated 500 million gallons of water a year.
The school district already has spent about $60 million converting 29 grass high school football fields to artificial turf.
Mark Campbell, interim chief of facilities for the school district, says the district feels a “sense of urgency” to conserve water.
The district plans to pay for the turf project using a couple of funding sources, including a bond reserve fund.
Rebates from the Southern Nevada Water Authority will go back into that same fund, Campbell said. The expectation is that the district will receive a little less than $30 million in rebates — about 10 percent of the total project cost, he said.
