at 4 acre-feet of water per acre of land. Based on the fact that it takes 4 acre-feet per acre of alfalfa crop to grow several cuttings a year. That means inundating that acre with a column of water 4 feet tall each year.

Take that acre and divide it into four 1/4 acre lots for homes. Each home is appropriated 1/2 acre-foot of water per year by the state for culinary (all non-irrigation) purposes. That’s 2 acre-feet of culinary.

But you’ve also got grass which has a similar water consumption as alfalfa. So if half the lot is turf you’re using 2 acre-feet of irrigation as well.

So ultimately I figure agriculture and development demand about the same acre for acre. Want to go high density and build twin homes or apartments? Sure, you’ll grow less grass, but you’re putting more families in per acre as well at 1/2 acre-foot per family.

Ag water is the bulk of water demand in Utah, but not because it uses more than development, just because the bulk of the land in Utah is still used for agriculture.

https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2256&context=extension_curall