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By The Associated Press

FRESNO - The city of Fresno is considering lawn buybacks as it studies ways to conserve water with the growing population.

The city council's Urban Water Management Plan, which outlines water-saving goals and ways to reach them, includes a proposal to pay homeowners to remove lawns and ban water-consuming landscaping in new construction.

Fresno, with a population approaching 450,000, charges residents a flat rate for water no matter how much they use, a practice that will end by 2013. Fresno residents use an average of 60 gallons of water a day more than their neighbors in Clovis, where homes are metered.

Fresno officials say residents use 75 million gallons a day in the winter and more than 250 million in the summer, much of it to water lawns.

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