paper water
n.— «The entitlements, however, translate to only about 50,000 acre-feet of actual water deliveries. That’s because distribution from the system, which represents about 4.2 million acre-feet in entitlements, is based on availability. The difference between entitlements and actual water delivered is often referred to as “paper water.”» —“Enviromental groups oppose changes to Water Project” in L.A. Desert Sun (Palm Springs, California) Dec. 27, 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
A retronym is a word coined to distinguish something new from an older, more generic version, such as electric guitar or clock radio. A couple of new retronyms are fine water, or “unprocessed water that reflects a region’s terroir” and water...