Is it backward or backwards?
And how much water do you think a drinking fountain wastes?
Is symbolic coolness ever a waste?
PS. . . In Vegas the water manager tells me he doesn't care how many times you flush the toilet or how much water goes down any drain. It's all collected, cleaned up passively, and passed into Lake Mead, and for every drop that goes in from their drain, they get to take that many drops back out. . . several miles away and a lot cleaner. Overall, for each gallon they draw from the lake, 0.67 gallons goes back in. So the next day they get to take out 1.67 gallons, and 1.23 gallons goes back in. . .. so the third day they get 2.23 gallons and 1.44 gallons goes back in. For the mathematically gifted this is an equation that has a definite limit, reached with a result of 3 times as much water being taken out of the lake as defined by Nevada's Colorado River allotment, with 2 times that going back in continuously. . . .and the whole "allotment" going up in evaporation one way or another.
When Vegas forces me to sell my water rights, on this equation, they should pay me 3 times the going price for the water.
But farmers just don't understand the new math. They brag about "letting the yellow mellow" and conserving flushes and such. But if the septic system is a decent distance from the well, it doesn't make any difference to them, either, how many times they flush.
Most hydrologic engineers I've run across don't seem to understand how to calculate the return ratio of water to the aquifer under differing systems of use, and anyway their equations have fudge factors that are astronomical anyway. The only way you know what can be used is by measuring the groundwater levels.