You can get better cooling performance at the cost of slight water usage or you can use more energy without using water at all.
The greener solution is to use water.
The greener solution is to use water.
It's going to come back down as rain, yes, but there is no guarantee it will come down in the place you need it. Fairly minor variations in surface temperatures and evaporation can have a large effect on local rainfall.
In many states it doesn't matter, but out in the arid west, water is constantly a crisis item.