The drought became a main topic of conversation Thursday at military cemeteries across California as they face Gov. Jerry Brown’s mandate to cutback water use by 25 percent.
The restrictions come at a time when Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery is installing a new variety of grass that requires more water.
Douglas Ledbetter, director of Fort Rosecrans and Miramar National Cemeteries, said the drought is going to force some changes in how the 78-acre cemetery is maintained.
“It’s tough. We want to be good stewards, but we also have high standards for our cemeteries,” he said. “We have a mandate to maintain them as national shrines.”
The newly-installed fescue grass is better looking than the Kakula grass it replaced but is more water reliant.
Ledbetter said at this point, it would be “way too expensive” to pull out the fescue and replace it with another grass, like Bermuda or St. Augustine. Plus he likes the look of the new type.
Instead, Rosecrans is going to immediately implement ways to cut back on water usage. The game plan mirrors that of a homeowner looking to cut back their water use.
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Caretakers are going to “ … keep an eye on sprinkler head nozzles to reel in our water usage, making sure we are not over spraying roads and sidewalks,” said Ledbetter.
The cemetery is also going to closely monitor sprinklers, the water pipes and everything that has to do with water delivery.
California has the largest concentration of military cemeteries in the United States, so the directors across the state had a conference call Thursday to discuss the challenges they are all facing with the mandated water cutback.
Ledbetter told NBC 7 each cemetery faces different challenge. He pointed out that while Rosecrans depends on fresh water, the newer Miramar National Cemetery uses recycled water.
