Bay Area Has Toughest Water Restrictions In Florida

You'll learn this month whether you can turn on your sprinklers an extra day each week.

In the meantime, while you're watching the grass grow browner and waiting for water managers to make their decision June 24, consider this:

You've got it tougher than anyone else in Florida.

People across the 16 counties of the Southwest Florida Water Management District have been under a once-a-week restriction since January 2007, longer than the rest of the state.

But we're used to it: Regional water managers here have been imposing the strictest seasonal lawn-watering rules in Florida for the past 15 years.

For 10 million other Floridians from Key West to Jacksonville, water restrictions have been around for only two years. And for most of them, restrictions mean they're limited to two waterings a week.

Outside West Central Florida, only four small cities and areas around Lake Okeechobee are under once-a-week watering restrictions.

This discrepancy may be changing soon: The state's three largest water management districts, home to 15.5 million of Florida's 17 million residents, are working to develop uniform watering rules. Under one proposal, people in all of these districts could turn on sprinklers twice a week.

Here's a look at restrictions in each of the three districts.

St. Johns River Water Management District
Size: 12,000 square miles, 3.5 million people, all or part of 18 counties
1st Restriction (1991): 4 p.m. to 10 a.m. daily
Current Restrictions (2006): Two days a week

Southwest Florida Water Management District
Size: 10,000 square miles, 4.5 million people, all or part of 16 counties
1st Restriction (1993): Two days a week
Current Restrictions (2007): One day a week

South Florida Water Management District
Size: 17,000 square miles, 7.5 million people, all or part of 16 counties
1st Restriction (2006): Three days a week
2nd Restriction (January 2008): One day a week
Current Restrictions (April 2008): Two days a week for Broward, Collier, Miami-Dade, Monroe and St. Lucie counties, and coastal areas of Lee, Martin and Palm Beach counties; once a week for four East Coast cities and parts of Lee, Glades, Hendry, Okeechobee, and western Martin and Palm Beach counties