It’s all those golf courses, green lawns, and fountains wasting water in an arid region; right?
No!
A brief look at the statistics on water use in the West tell that it is agriculture, not western cities that consume the water. Within agriculture one water use stands out. Growing feed for cattle!
Cattle are the primary reason the West is short on water. It’s almost a crime that few people realize this fact.
Guzzling the West’s Water. By George Wuerthner. Writers on the Range in New West.