We need to be better at conserving water, without a doubt. The question is, how and what are the most effective ways to do that? Like you said, only 15% of Utah’s water is used by residents. Seems to be the big, low hanging fruit is agriculture.
One easy solution I’ve heard floated around is to let farmers sell excess water back into the system. Under the current rules, farmers operate under “use it or lose it” water rights. So, they make sure to use up all their rights unnecessarily. If, however, they were incentivized to conserve water because all the excess could then be sold back into the system, it would motivate farmers to manage their water better.
That’s the direction I’d like to see us head.