WATER WASTE: How can water be wasted or lost? According to the hydrologic cycle, all water is reused.
You are correct when you say water comes back as rain, but it is not spread out evenly on the earth. Some areas have conditions (clouds, evapotranspiration) that cause more rain to fall; other areas have different conditions (cold dry air, lack of clouds) that make the amount of rainfall very small. The earth’s surface is nearly three-fourths water so naturally most rain falls into the ocean. The average yearly rainfall for Fresno is about 10.5 inches but even in just the area of the City some places will receive more and some less from any storm. (Traditionally, a region that annually receives less than an average of 10″ of rain each year is called a desert.) In comparison, the average yearly rainfall in Phoenix, Arizona is 7.5″, Modesto 12″, and San Francisco 20.4″. As Fresno continues to grow, there is more demand on the groundwater supply. Even in the wettest years there is not enough rain to replace the groundwater that we use.
