Upon returning to her home in the high alpine desert of Idaho after an Alaskan trip, water expert Wendy J. Pabich, Ph.D, was horrified when she opened her monthly water bill. Her newly installed irrigation system used 30,000 gallons to water a small quarter acre urban lot during the heat of summer. “I was floored,” she said. The water bill came as a shock not because of the cost, but rather because Pabich was an environmental scientist and expert on sustainable water use who always considered herself a conservative water user. So she set out to understand and reduce her …