Current restrictions will continue at least through December.

The Southwest Florida Water Management District (District) Governing Board voted today to extend one-day-per-week watering restrictions again for Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties until Dec. 31 due to ongoing efforts to refill the regional reservoir.

Citrus, DeSoto, Hardee, Hernando, Manatee, Polk, Sarasota and Sumter counties; portions of Charlotte, Highlands and Lake counties; the City of Dunnellon and The Villages in Marion County; and the portion of Gasparilla Island in Lee County will return to the District’s Year-Round Water Conservation Measures, or twice-per-week-watering, as of Sept. 2. Some local governments such as unincorporated Citrus, Hernando and Sarasota counties, and the cities of Dunedin, Tampa and Venice, have local ordinances that remain on one-day-per-week schedules.

The District Governing Board declared a Modified Phase I Water Shortage Order in November 2023 and voted to extend that order in February and again in June. At the end of July, the District had a 12-month rainfall deficit of about 5.1 inches. Provisional data indicate Districtwide rainfall through Aug. 21, which includes Tropical Storm Debby, is above average, which will help reduce the 12-month deficit. However, Tampa Bay Water’s 15.5-billion-gallon C.W. Bill Young Regional Reservoir is still approximately 7.5 billion gallons below its capacity.

The District also approved a request today from Tampa Bay Water to modify their existing emergency order for the Alafia River to help refill the reservoir. The modified order will temporarily increase the maximum day withdrawal limit from 60 million gallons per day to 75 million gallons per day when additional flow is available above the river’s minimum flow. The order has been extended to March 31, 2025.

Once-per-week lawn watering days and times are as follows unless your city or county has a different schedule or stricter hours in effect:

• If your address (house number) ends in...
  • ...0 or 1, water only on Monday
  • ...2 or 3, water only on Tuesday
  • ...4 or 5, water only on Wednesday
  • ...6 or 7, water only on Thursday
  • ...8 or 9*, water only on Friday
    * and locations without a discernible address
• Unless your city or county already has stricter hours in effect, properties under two acres in size may only water before 8 a.m. or after 6 p.m.
• Unless your city or county already has stricter hours in effect, properties two acres or larger may only water before 10 a.m. or after 4 p.m.
• Low-volume watering of plants and shrubs (micro-irrigation, soaker hoses, hand watering) is allowed any day and any time.

The order also requires local utilities to review and implement procedures for enforcing water shortage restrictions, including reporting enforcement activity to the District.