Impacts of reducing outdoor municipal water usage

The Colorado River supplies water to nearly 40 million individuals as well as providing water for agriculture across the south-western United States. Because of the importance of this river, the significant reduction in water flowing into the system poses a significant risk to the water security for millions. To combat this, avenues to reduce current water consumption in the Colorado River Basin (CRB) and surrounding locations must be explored. This report explores one such avenue, exploring the potential impacts of reducing outdoor municipal water usage across the entirety of the CRB. This report proposes a new approach to estimating the total volume of water consumption that can be attributed to outdoor municipal use. This report estimates that 1.1 million acre-feet of water consumption annually can be attributed to outdoor municipal water use. The data, model, and directions to reproduce this study are included here, including the results of this study.