Water Use in the Landscape: A Comparison of Water Quality and Irrigation Technologies on Behavior

Abstract Reclaimed wastewater for outdoor irrigation purposes is an effective tool for conserving potable water sources and reducing effluent discharge from wastewater treatment facilities. Despite its “green” attributes, we find outdoor watering behavior that is consistent with households treating reclaimed water as a lower quality substitute to potable water for outdoor residential irrigation. Using unique microdata, we estimate the demand for outdoor water and find that after controlling for differences in irrigation water prices, households using reclaim water and households without automatic irrigation systems consume substantially less water in the landscape.