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This article seeks to explain the paradoxical emergence of water conservation policies (e.g., recycling rain water, replenishing groundwater tables, etc.) in the western United States, where economic development nevertheless remains a high political priority. These measures are much more than just a timely response to the long-standing drought affecting Arizona: water conservation policies in fact draw on specific social and institutional premises that this article will describe, defending the idea that “water protagonists“ rally around tools for joint action. This “instrumental coalition“ does not just entail supporting a number of standard political objectives: it draws on the social characteristics of its leaders. Practical agreements on the tools for action also allow for largely different interests to be reconciled. Shared technical competencies have in turn prompted the greening of water conservation policies, as initiated by the local authorities of Pima County and ultimately reaching water professionals.