SW Florida restricts landscape irrigation to one day a week
14 Jan, 2009 LM Direct!A lingering drought in and around the Tampa Bay region of Florida has officials at the Southwest Florida Water Management District ( SWFWMD ) concerned about supplying drinking water to residents there. At the center of that concern is the C.W. Bill Young Regional Reservoir, which could dry up within a couple of months due to a crack in its soil cement layer.
Since officials are attempting to maintain only six billion gallons of water in the reservoir, about 40% of its normal capacity, and the drought has reduced flows in the Alafia and Hillsborough Rivers, the SWFWMD has issued some strict conservation measures.
SWFWMD's governing board announced one-day-per-week watering through Feb. 27; restricting hand-watering and micro-irrigation for non-lawn landscaping to before 8 a.m. or after 6 p.m. (the same hours that lawn watering is allowed); reducing the hours that fountains and waterfalls can run from eight hours to only four hours a day; plus new rules for putting in new lawns.
“Officials worry about drinking water supplies,” by Suzette Porter, Tampa Bay Newspapers, Jan. 12
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