What's with the dead lawns across Sioux Falls? Company plans to fix mistake soon, owner says

It's not just your neighbor's house down the street with a patchy green and brown lawn.

Hundreds of Sioux Falls area residential and commercial lawns have burned up in the past two weeks, part of a widespread chemical burn from a routine weed control application by a local lawn care company. Impacted businesses include the Good Samaritan Society along Marion Road, the Washington Pavilion and more.

The company, Kut and Kill Lawn Care, based out of Harrisburg, applied weed control to 302 properties around the Sioux Falls area between April 19 and May 3, owner Tate Eining said. It wasn't until May 9, when the sun came out and the temperature warmed, that the company realized there was an issue with the application.

"What happened is that an employee made an honest mistake. It was purely by accident," Eining said. "I feel terrible for our customers as well as our employee, who is devastated by what happened."

The employee mixed the wrong chemical that burned the lawns, Eining said. The herbicide chemicals that were applied don't activate until it gets warm out.

Aside from aesthetics, the situation left affected customers concerned about how to resolve the issue, the cost in doing so and the timeline to fix their lawns.

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Eining said in an email to customers earlier this month that he's hoping to get an answer from his insurance company by the end of this week. While he hasn't updated affected customers yet about the specifics, he told the Argus Leader that he will resolve the issue as soon as possible. He emphasized that his customers will not have brown lawns for the rest of the summer.

"The biggest thing that I want people to know is that we are going to take care of every single customer," Eining said. "There should be no question in that."

Customers eager to get situation resolved

Hazen Vennard, whose residence was affected in Harrisburg, is anxious about getting an answer on the matter soon. He got a quote on tilling up his 9,800-square-foot yard and installing new sod, costing between $6,000 and $7,000. That doesn't include the cost of utilities to water the sod, he added.

Vennard hopes for some sort of resolution — either paying for a replacement or having Kut and Kill replace the lawn for him.

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"It's one of those things where we take great pride in our yard and have a nice house," Vennard said. "If your yard looks like crap then the rest of the house looks like crap."

Cecelia and T.J. Collins's southwestern Sioux Falls home was also affected by the chemical burn. The employee who applied the herbicide to their yard also burned their neighbors' yards, they said.

"We're hoping they'll do what's right and fix the issue without cost to us," Cecelia Collins said.

T.J. Collins works in agriculture markets and said that from the research he's done and his own experience, "if the fertilizer burn is bad enough, then the existing grass could take several months to come back" if at all.

The couple doesn't plan to water their lawn until they get an answer, since they don't want to pay for a water bill on a lawn that might not revive.

The couple has been using Kut and Kill services for less than a year, after the company installed a sprinkler system on their property. While it isn't "the end of the world," the Collinses said they'll be searching for a new lawn care company.

"This company is pretty well known and do a lot of properties around town," Cecelia Smith said. "I'm hopeful that they're going to make it right. It's unfortunate and I understand that mistakes happen, but at the end of the day it is just grass. There are much worse things that could be affecting us than dead grass."