Like when ppl say don’t wash your yard or car with a hose. Isn’t the extra water or for that matter all water either seeping underground and adding to groundwater table or being evaporated into nature to be recycled? In both cases the water will be filtered enough to be potable….
In: Physics
So, you’re right that on a long enough timescale it’ll even out. But think of it this way – if you had a pound of pure gold, and I took it and threw it into a volcano – no harm done – eventually that gold will find itself in the rock to be mined again. Right?
The water you wash your car with is drinking water. It takes a lot of work to make it drinkable and that water is expensive. Your municipality may only have so much capacity to provide drinking water. And it will make it into the groundwater table, but that can take a decade. Meanwhile, your city needs to pump out even more water, which [can cause problems](https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/location-maximum-land-subsidence-us-levels-1925-and-1977).
So, at a minimum it’s a waste of money, it’s a waste of infrastructure, and it potentially means that your region is using water faster than it can be replenished (true in most of the world).
Latest Answers