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Iorio recommends easing Tampa watering rules

Photo by KEVIN HOWE

Karen Conroy may be able to expand her watering routine if the sprinkler ban is lifted.

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By CHRISTIAN M. WADE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 27, 2009

Updated: 05/27/2009 02:50 pm

TAMPA - With the Hillsborough River and the city's reservoir returning to normal levels, Mayor Pam Iorio has asked the city council to ease Tampa's watering restrictions.

In a letter to city council members today, Iorio said two weeks of heavy rain has restored the river flow to 152 million gallons a day and the reservoir – Tampa's primary source of drinking water – to 21.7 feet. She recommended loosening the restrictions.

The council, which will consider Iorio's request at a workshop Thursday, has tried several times to loosen the watering restrictions, considered the toughest in the state.

The most recent attempt came Thursday when the council voted 4-3 against easing the restrictions by allowing property owners to irrigate with sprinklers twice a month.

"The emergency has been over for weeks and it's about time that the government get off peoples' backs," said Councilman John Dingfelder, the lone council member who voted on March 19 against enacting the restrictions. "These rules were a mistake from the beginning."

If the council votes to ease the rules, the city would still be subject to the Southwest Florida Water Management District's emergency irrigation restrictions, which allow lawn sprinkling once a week but bans noncommercial car washing and other uses.

Among Iorio's recommendations to the council:

* Allow customers to irrigate with sprinkler systems once a week on their designated watering day.

* Watering hours for most customers from midnight to 4 a.m.; however, hours are specified for property sizes and irrigation methods.

* Limit non-turf irrigation by low-volume methods to three days per week.

* Limit pressure washing to that conducted by commercial businesses.

* Prohibit residential car washing.

* Apply 78 degree requirement in water-cooled buildings to government facilities and common areas only.

Tampa's restrictions allow only hand-watering of lawns, plants, flower beds and other types of landscaping one day a week, in addition to other limitations. Reclaimed water users and private shallow well owners are largely exempt from the sprinkler ban.

Iorio and other city officials have said they understand the restrictions have caused hardships but argue they were necessary to protect the city's water supply.

The city leans on the Hillsborough River for much of its water, capturing the flow in a reservoir about 10 miles from the river's mouth. Three years of drought means the river barely can supply a quarter of what Tampa customers use on watering days.

Since the sprinkler ban went into effect April 3, the city has saved more than 500 million gallons of water, an average of about 13 million gallons a day, officials have said.

Reporter Christian M. Wade can be reached at (813) 259-7679

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