Water is the ultimate example of recycling. Water continually renews itself. This is called the water cycle. It cleans itself by going from a liquid, or solid, into vapor and back again. The change to vapor removes most of the impurities and allows the water to return to earth in its purist form.

The Earth is a closed system, much like a terrarium. That means that the Earth, as a whole, neither gains nor loses much matter, including water. This means that the same water that existed on Earth millions of years ago is still here. It is entirely possible that the dinosaurs once used the water you drank for lunch.

There are 326 cubic million miles of water on the earth. But only 0.03 % of that water is usable. Of every 10,000 gallons of water on Earth fewer than 50 gallons are safe, fresh water. On the average, every American uses about 150 gallons of water each day. That's over 372 billion gallons per day. Yet only a half-gallon is actually used for consumption.

Source: USGS Water Science For Schools website

With that amount of usage it's important to conserve this precious resource. Whether a water shortage is caused by drought or by the fact that South Dakota is a semi-arid state with somewhat light rainfall in the range of 10-20 inches per year. Water is a valuable resource and should be conserved by everyone.