Re. "water going right back into the environment"...
While that is true as a simple statement, the net local effect is usually nothing so simple. Ground water systems are almost always autonomous and utility companies rarely (probably close to never) put water back into the same systems that they are taking from. Too much risk, plus there is usually a shorter route to the 'dumping' area than the distance to pipe it back to the source.
It is very possible to entirely drain a localities water source as the water does not go full circle (evaporation, redistribution) in a timely manner. That is happening right now in the City where I work due to an unusually dry summer and combined with city planners who are approving record numbers of building permits (mostly for multi-unit dwellings) while still trying to run the city on it's old single reservoir.
This can be accentuated by looking at people who use wells in their own back yards for heat pumps. Some heat pumps operate on a dual well system where they draw from one well, use it for home heating, then dump the water back into another well. Even though both wells might be in your back yard, it is very possible that both wells touch entirely different underground water systems. It is possible to entirely drain your input well dry, even though you are dumping water back into the ground only 100' away.
I'm not preaching conservation here as I don't know your local situation. I just wanted to share a very tiny bit of what I've been learning lately about water tables.
