As enthused as Christensen (the president of the project) is about Southern Shores, he said he is well aware of the optics of opening a luxury water-resort community in southwest Utah, which until recently was mired in severe drought and even now remains abnormally dry.

Christensen estimates he total amount of water that will have to be replaced each year due to evaporation at 135-acre feet. An acre-foot is nearly 326,000 gallons, which is enough water to cover an acre of land about one-foot deep.

“That’s 44 million gallons of water just to make up for the amount of water lost due to evaporation,” said Andrechak, adding it doesn’t account for the amount of water needed to fill the lakes or the water that will be used for the homes built on the site.

:elmofire: