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St. Petersburg Water Police Staying Up Late

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By NEIL JOHNSON

njohnson@tampatrib.com

Published: March 14, 2009

ST. PETERSBURG - If you expect to use the cover of darkness to sidestep water restrictions in St. Petersburg, forget it. Water patrols will begin prowling city streets at night to enforce the once-weekly sprinkling rules.

"It makes sense that if you're tying to get away with something, you try to do it at night," said George Cassady, the city's water department director. "The lion's share of our water policing is done during the day."
Cassady said the nighttime patrols will start soon but didn't have an exact date. The daytime patrols will continue.

About 100 city workers are trained to enforce St. Petersburg's restrictions, which allow people to water lawns only once a week unless they use reclaimed water. The number on patrol each day depends on scheduling and shifts, Cassady said.

In another move, more likely to be symbolic than to save lots of water, St. Petersburg will turn off all city-owned decorative fountains.

"We're saying we don't have water, but it must not be that bad if fountains are running," Cassady said.

A drought that experts think started in June 2006 prompted the Southwest Florida Water Management District to cut the normal twice-weekly lawn watering to once a week.

St. Petersburg, like other Bay-area water utilities, no longer issues warnings for first-time violators. The fine is $175 plus court costs.

The drought shows no sign of loosening its grip on West Central Florida. Forecasters expect drought conditions to spread over the Florida Panhandle and persist through May over the peninsula.

The Climate Prediction Center's forecast also calls for below-average rain statewide for the next three months.

The weekly update of the U.S. Drought Monitor shows all of Florida under some level of drought, with the driest parts around the Bay area and Southeast Florida. Those areas make up a quarter of the state and are considered in a severe drought.

About 30 percent of the state is in a moderate drought, and the rest is classified as abnormally dry, the first stage of drought.

February rainfall didn't help conditions. The National Climate Data Center says last month was the 13th-driest February in 115 years of records.

Rainfall for most of the state last month ranged from 50 percent to 75 percent of normal.

The six months from September through February are Florida's third-driest for that period in 114 years of record-keeping.

Reporter Neil Johnson can be reached at (813) 259-7731.

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