I don’t know whether to view these signs all over Tucson’s golf courses proclaiming their use of “reclaimed” water as proud – “We’re water smart!” or defensive. But whenever the conversation veers toward water “reclamation”, always ask yourself where that water might have gone if you hadn’t, for example, put it on this golf course. As Tony Davis pointed out earlier this month, one place urban effluent might otherwise end up is in the desert riparian systems that have otherwise been deprived of water by the cities that have grown up around them.