Water usage in the Southwest has wildly different impacts by area. Las Vegas, for instance, is hardcore about treating wastewater and returning it back to Lake

Water usage in the Southwest has wildly different impacts by area. Las Vegas, for instance, is hardcore about treating wastewater and returning it back to Lake Mead (delicious, right?)—which means that a lot of outdoor water use is still lost to evaporation but almost all household water use has a nearly net zero impact. Arizona, to my knowledge, doesn't have any systems like that in place. Not for nothing that all those stories you hear about new developments trying to skirt water usage regulations and then being shocked when residents suddenly run out of water for their swimming pools seem to come out of Arizona.