Yeah, man. Consumed in the same way that we mean water is consumed in every other context. Doesn't change the fact that the ground water is now sky water. Ground water takes months to decades to replenish, using it isn't harmless to the ecosystems you take it from.

The problem is that it accelerates the cycle of freshwater to undrinkable salt water (most rains down into the ocean) while the cycle taking that water back to clean watersheds is no faster than before, which contributes to depletion of limited drinking water - especially since municipalities are often all too eager to strike deals with data centers to provide cheap hookups to the drinking water supply.

The logic of saying that it's all staying in the water cycle feels kinda like dumping all the food in your fridge into a septic tank and saying well none of the atoms where destroyed and it'll all come back through the grocery store in a millenia. Sure in the grand scheme it's a big closed loop, but the loop moves slowly and unevenly.

Not entirely. If it's pumped from the water table, it can take many years for it to filter its way back in through the bedrock.

My dad had a house on a mountain and when his well went dry, I celebrated when it started raining. But then he said it wouldn't matter, as that rain wouldn't hit the water table for years, and it would just run off and away mostly.

Yes. It ends up in the ocean. Where there is infinite water. Do you know why there are places with almost no water, even though there is an "infinite" water source on earth? It's not because they live far from the ocean. It is because ocean water is salty. Salty water is not apt for human consumption.

When you throw fresh water in the ocean, you are essentially destroying that water. Even if the H2O molecules are still there.

Oh well that makes it completely okay!

Say, you wouldn't have a problem if I dumped my household sewage in your municipal water supply, would you? After all, I'm technically not consuming any water - no molecules are being created or destroyed - just borrowing it for a few hours.