"The drought situation across the western U.S. has improved considerably as a result of a very wet winter," Jay Famiglietti said. In fact, both California and Nevada are "essentially drought-free" at the moment, which is "really unusual."

Southwestern cities have an exceptionally simple solution for curbing residential water use: Charge more for it in the summers. After Phoenix started using this powerful incentive, the number of homes with front or back lawns went down from nearly 80% in the 1970s to about 10% today, according to Kathryn Sorensen.

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The focus on water, particularly vital for Arizona, is aligned with the broader objective of integrating sustainability into the fabric of regional development, an effort led by Paul Westerhoff, a regents professor at ASU's School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment.

“Essentially, cities need to carefully consider the trade-offs between a program like this (grass removal rebates), or investing in other ways to get people to reduce the amount of water they’re using on their yard,” said Sarah Porter, the director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University.

Conservation is necessary but it's not enough to achieve "safe yield," the balance between water pumped and water replenished, according to a report by the Kyl Center for Water Policy, authored by Ferris and center Director Sarah Porter.

“The fact that groundwater depletion has been accelerating in such a large number of food-producing regions underscores the critical links between food and water security, and that both are at far greater risk around the world than most people realize,” said Jay Famiglietti.

“Not only are things getting worse, but in some places the pace of decline is accelerating—and that includes California and Arizona,” Jay Famiglietti says. “We’ve been kicking the can down the road for a long time.” 

Paradoxically enough, the steady march of master-planned communities to the horizon — an Arizona cliché — provides big hydrological savings because of the conversion of water-guzzling farmland into more parsimonious suburban uses, Sarah Porter, the director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University, told me.

The department’s interpretation of current law doesn’t let the agency consider projected water use to halt new irrigation in an area, which further limits its ability to establish regulatory areas, according to Sarah Porter, Director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy.