About Water Restrictions

What Is Water Restrictions?

Water Restrictions is a free public resource that tracks active watering schedules, drought stages, fines, and the utilities enforcing them across 332+US cities and all 50 states plus the District of Columbia. We aggregate data that's otherwise scattered across hundreds of individual utility and government websites into one searchable, structured database — one page per city, one page per state, all normalized so you can compare rules across jurisdictions.

Why Does This Site Exist?

During a drought, the most common question homeowners ask is “what days can I water my lawn?” The answer is usually buried in a PDF on a utility website, announced in a press release that's hard to find, or spread across a city ordinance and a water district declaration that don't reference each other. We pull that information together so you can look up your city in seconds — the assigned days, the allowed hours, the fine schedule, and the authority that issued the order.

Who This Site Is For

Most of our readers are homeowners and renters who just need to know when they can water and what happens if they get it wrong. But the same structured data serves several other groups:

• Homeowners and renters — assigned watering days, hours, exemptions, and fines for their address.
• HOA boards and property managers— what state law allows them to enforce during a declared drought, and what it doesn't.
• Landscapers and irrigation professionals — the current stage in every city they service, without calling each utility.
• Journalists and researchers — normalized severity data across hundreds of cities, citable and dated, with a free JSON API behind it.

How Restrictions Work in the US

There is no federal watering schedule. Water restrictions in the United States are set locality by locality: the rules in force on your block are issued by your city or its water utility, the trigger conditions that drive them are often set by a regional water management district, and statewide drought declarations come from your state's water or environmental agency. Two neighboring cities can be under completely different rules at the same time — one on a two-day schedule with fines, the other fully unrestricted.

That layered system is why a single national source is genuinely useful. In Florida, water management districts like SWFWMD set phase declarations that dozens of cities then implement with local variations. In Nevada, the Southern Nevada Water Authority sets seasonal schedules for the Las Vegas Valley. In Colorado and Texas, each utility largely runs its own drought response plan with its own stage triggers. We track all three layers and show you the rule that actually applies at your address.

What the Severity Levels Mean

Every city and state on this site is normalized into four severity tiers, so a Florida “Modified Phase III” and a Colorado “Stage 3” can be compared directly:

• Emergency — the most severe tier. Outdoor watering is banned or nearly banned, enforcement is active, and violations can lead to service action. Usually triggered by critically low supply.
• Mandatory — enforceable rules with fines: assigned watering days, restricted hours, and banned uses. The most common tier during an active drought.
• Voluntary — the utility asks customers to conserve but does not fine violations. Often the first step, and a signal that mandatory rules follow if conditions worsen.
• None — no active drought restrictions, though many cities keep year-round watering rules (like no midday watering) even in normal conditions.

How We Collect Data

Our data comes from official sources only: city utility departments, regional water management districts, state environmental agencies, and the US Drought Monitor. We check each source regularly and update records when restrictions change. Every city page includes a direct link to the issuing authority so you can verify the information yourself — if our page and the utility's page ever disagree, the utility is right and we want to hear about it.

Editorial Standards

Every record on this site is dated. The Published date is the day the restriction order took effect, drawn from the utility's announcement, ordinance, or news release. The Updated date is the most recent verification — either confirmation the order is unchanged, or a correction if it has been revised. When a city moves between stages, the record resets to the new effective date.

We rely on primary sources: the restriction order itself, the utility's conservation page, the district's declaration. News coverage can flag a change for us, but the record isn't updated until the official source confirms it. Editorial summaries and FAQ answers are written from the verified facts in each city record, so the same question gets a consistent, source-backed answer on every page. Our news articles and guides carry the byline of the regional editor responsible for them, and each one states the reporting date and links to the live city pages for current rules.

What We Track for Each City

• Current restriction phase or stage
• Allowed watering days and address-based schedule
• Permitted watering hours and blackout periods
• Fine schedules (first offense and repeat)
• Restriction end dates or conditions for lifting
• The authority responsible and their contact info
• Water sources, drought context, and HOA protection statutes

Our Data & Sources

We currently track 332+ cities across all 50 states and the District of Columbia, with records last updated July 16, 2026. Data is refreshed daily from official sources during active drought cycles.

The backbone of our drought data is the US Drought Monitor, a joint product of NOAA, the USDA, and the National Drought Mitigation Center, updated every Thursday — it drives the drought-coverage figures on our state pages. Restriction rules themselves come from the issuing authorities: regional water management districts such as SWFWMD, SFWMD, and SJRWMD in Florida, the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA), and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD), alongside hundreds of local water utilities — Denver Water, Austin Water, San Antonio Water System, Raleigh Water, and their counterparts nationwide. State water and environmental agencies fill in statewide declarations and drought frameworks.

When two sources disagree, we resolve in favor of the authority that actually enforces the rule: the city utility first, then the regional district, then the state agency. Population figures and coordinates come from the US Census Bureau; HOA statute citations come from the state code as published by each legislature.

Corrections:if you find an error — a stage that changed, a fine that's wrong, a schedule that's out of date — please contact us with the city page URL and a link to the official source. Corrections are reviewed daily during active drought cycles and the record's Updated date reflects the fix.

Water Restrictions is an independent resource, not affiliated with any government agency or utility. Always verify current rules with your local water provider before acting on them.

Coverage

Our deepest coverage is in states with active drought conditions: Colorado, Florida, Texas, North Carolina, California, and Arizona lead the list, and we expand continuously as new restrictions are declared. Alongside restriction data, we maintain cooling center listings for major cities during heat emergencies, original news reporting on drought and heat events, and evergreen guides for living with restrictions.

Our Team

Our content is written by a team of regional water and climate editors, each covering a defined territory of states. Meet the team →

Follow Water Restrictions on Google

Add Water Restrictions as a preferred source in Google Search to see our city pages first when you search for watering schedules, drought stages, and restriction updates. Look for the “Add Water Restrictions on Google” button in search results, or visit your Google Search preferences.

Questions or Corrections?

Questions, media inquiries, or corrections? Contact us →

For Developers

We offer a free JSON API at /api/v1/restrictions for accessing structured restriction data programmatically. The severity normalization described above is documented there. See our API documentation for details.