Georgia Water Restrictions 2026

Water restrictions across Georgia right now

Georgia is confronting the most severe water crisis in its modern history. As of spring 2026, every single county in the state sits under some level of drought designation, and Governor Brian Kemp's April 22, 2026 declaration of a State of Emergency covering 91 counties has placed the entire water management apparatus of the state on a war footing. The declaration was triggered not only by critically low reservoir and stream levels but by an explosive wildfire season across southern Georgia, where hundreds of fires burned through the Okefenokee Swamp margin, pine flatwoods, and agricultural land in the weeks preceding the emergency order.

The United States Drought Monitor classified 27 percent of Georgia at D4 Exceptional — the most extreme category the monitor uses — while the remaining 73 percent of the state fell across D1 Severe through D3 Extreme classifications. No part of Georgia escaped the drought footprint. The Flint River, the Alapaha River, and the Suwannee River headwaters in southern Georgia were running at record-low flows for late April, threatening municipal intakes and agricultural irrigation permits simultaneously.

In response to both the emergency declaration and pre-existing legislation, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division activated mandatory drought response protocols across all water systems covered by the state's Water Stewardship Act. Outdoor irrigation statewide is now restricted to the hours between 4 p.m. and 10 a.m., a window designed to minimize evaporation losses during peak solar hours. Atlanta, Augusta, Macon, Savannah, and Valdosta have all moved to mandatory outdoor watering restrictions, with each city layering local Level 1 Drought protocols on top of the statewide baseline rules.

In Valdosta, where the situation is particularly acute given its proximity to the Withlacoochee River and the ongoing wildfires in Lowndes and Lanier counties, officials imposed mandatory outdoor restriction orders that go beyond the statewide minimum. Residents there are prohibited from any non-essential outdoor water use during daytime hours, and commercial car washes are operating under reduced-flow requirements.

The wildfire dimension of this crisis is not incidental. The Georgia Forestry Commission reported that by early May 2026, suppression efforts in the Alapaha and Satilla River flatwoods had consumed extraordinary volumes of water drawn from already-depleted rural ponds and municipal hydrant systems. Fire suppression competed directly with domestic supply in at least a dozen south Georgia communities.

Water utilities across the state are urging residents to reduce total consumption by at least 25 percent from baseline usage figures. The Georgia Environmental Protection Division has indicated that if reservoir storage at Lake Lanier, Lake Allatoona, and West Point Lake does not recover meaningfully by mid-summer, the state will escalate to Level 2 Drought response measures, which carry significantly heavier restrictions on commercial and industrial water users.

Fines and enforcement in Georgia

Enforcement of Georgia's outdoor watering restrictions operates through a combination of state authority under the Water Stewardship Act and local utility enforcement powers granted by municipal ordinances. The Georgia Environmental Protection Division holds the authority to issue violations against water systems that fail to properly implement or enforce drought response protocols, while individual resident and business violations are typically handled by local water utilities and municipal code enforcement officers.

For residential violations, the typical penalty structure begins with a written warning for a first offense, particularly for technical violations like watering during prohibited hours by a few minutes. A second offense within a twelve-month period commonly draws a fine in the range of $100 to $250, depending on the utility. A third offense can result in fines between $500 and $1,000 and, in some jurisdictions, mandatory installation of a flow-restricting device on the service line. Repeated or egregious violations — such as commercial irrigation operations that deliberately circumvent restrictions — can result in fines of up to $5,000 per day per violation under provisions of the Georgia Water Quality Control Act, which the EPD can invoke during declared emergency periods.

Complaint-driven enforcement is the primary detection mechanism for residential violations. Most water utilities in Georgia operate a watering violation hotline or an online complaint portal where neighbors, passersby, or utility inspectors can report suspected violations. Atlanta's Department of Watershed Management, for instance, accepts online reports with photographic evidence attached. Augusta Utilities has a dedicated water waste complaint line that feeds into its customer service enforcement workflow.

Smart meter technology is increasingly being deployed across Georgia utilities as a secondary detection tool. Gwinnett County, one of the state's largest utilities, has rolled out advanced metering infrastructure across a substantial portion of its service area, which allows utility staff to flag accounts showing irrigation-pattern usage during prohibited hours based on hourly consumption data. Savannah's utility has similarly used interval meter data to identify commercial accounts with automated irrigation systems running during prohibited midday windows.

Customers who believe they received a violation notice in error have the right to appeal to their local utility's customer service division, and in most Georgia jurisdictions a formal administrative appeal to the utility board or city council is available as a next step. The EPD maintains an ombudsman function for disputes that involve conflicts between local enforcement and state standards.

HOA protections in Georgia

One of the more practically important but frequently overlooked dimensions of Georgia's water restriction framework is the relationship between state drought law and the authority of homeowners associations. Many Georgia subdivisions, particularly in the sprawling suburbs of Atlanta, Augusta, and Savannah, are governed by HOA covenants that mandate landscape maintenance standards — including requirements to maintain green lawns and irrigate regularly — that directly conflict with drought-mandated watering restrictions.

Georgia addressed this conflict directly in the Georgia Water Stewardship Act of 2010, codified at O.C.G.A. § 12-5-7 and related provisions. The Act includes language establishing that state drought response measures and the outdoor watering restrictions promulgated under the Act supersede conflicting provisions of private covenants, deed restrictions, and HOA governing documents. In plain terms, a Georgia HOA cannot fine a homeowner, place a lien on a property, or pursue enforcement action against a resident who allows their lawn to turn brown or fail to irrigate because they are complying with state or local drought restrictions.

This protection is particularly significant under the current emergency conditions. With Level 1 restrictions in effect across all major metropolitan areas and mandatory restrictions in Valdosta and surrounding communities, tens of thousands of Georgia homeowners are legally shielded from HOA enforcement of landscape maintenance clauses that would otherwise require green lawns and regular irrigation.

The protection is not automatic in the sense that homeowners who wish to invoke it should be prepared to document their compliance with the applicable water restriction regime. Keeping records of the restriction notices issued by the local utility, the effective dates of the drought response level, and any communications from the HOA is advisable. If an HOA pursues enforcement action despite the state preemption, the homeowner can raise the O.C.G.A. § 12-5-7 defense in the HOA's dispute resolution process or, if necessary, in magistrate or superior court.

Georgia's Property Owners' Association Act (O.C.G.A. § 44-3-220 et seq.) does not itself address the drought preemption question but governs the procedural framework for HOA enforcement, appeals, and dispute resolution. Homeowners who receive violation notices related to drought-induced landscape conditions should first request a formal hearing under this Act, presenting the state restriction documentation as their defense before incurring any legal costs.

Where Georgia gets its water

Georgia draws its water supply from a geographically diverse set of surface water and groundwater sources, and understanding that diversity is essential to understanding why the 2026 drought affects different parts of the state in different ways.

In northern Georgia, the dominant surface water source is the Chattahoochee River, which originates in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Jacks Gap in Union County and flows southwest toward Atlanta before turning south toward the Alabama and Florida borders. Lake Sidney Lanier, impounded by Buford Dam on the Chattahoochee north of Atlanta, is the single most important water supply reservoir in the state, serving more than four million people in the metropolitan Atlanta region through direct withdrawals by water utilities including Gwinnett County, Hall County, the City of Gainesville, and the Atlanta-based Fulton County system. When Lake Lanier's storage drops below 60 percent, the alarm bells begin ringing across north Georgia's water utilities.

Lake Allatoona, impounded by Allatoona Dam on the Etowah River in Cherokee and Bartow counties, provides water supply to communities including Canton and Cartersville, as well as supplemental supply to parts of metro Atlanta. The West Point Lake reservoir on the lower Chattahoochee, straddling the Georgia-Alabama border, serves LaGrange and Lanett and provides flow augmentation for downstream users.

Central Georgia communities, including Macon, draw primarily from the Ocmulgee River and its reservoir system, including Lake Juliette, which was constructed primarily for power generation but also supports water supply withdrawals. Augusta draws from the Savannah River, which forms the border between Georgia and South Carolina and is impounded upstream at Lake Thurmond (also called Clarks Hill Lake) and Lake Hartwell, both operated by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Southern Georgia relies substantially on groundwater, particularly the Upper Floridan Aquifer, one of the most productive limestone aquifers in the United States. Valdosta, Tifton, Moultrie, Waycross, and hundreds of smaller communities in the coastal plain pump from the Floridan system. However, the Upper Floridan is not immune to drought stress — reduced recharge during dry years and heavy agricultural pumping during growing season can depress water table levels significantly, as occurred during the 2011–2012 drought when water levels in some monitoring wells fell to historic lows.

Savannah's water supply comes from the Savannah River and from Floridan Aquifer wells, with the city having invested heavily in aquifer storage and recovery systems. The Ogeechee River supplies smaller communities in east-central Georgia, while the Alapaha River and Withlacoochee River serve communities in the far south. Both of those rivers were at critically low levels in spring 2026.

How Georgia's drought framework works

Georgia's formal drought management structure is grounded in the Georgia Water Stewardship Act, signed into law in 2010, and administered primarily by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD), which sits within the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. The Act created a tiered, statewide baseline for outdoor water use that applies year-round regardless of drought conditions, and then established an escalating series of drought response levels that layer additional restrictions on top of that baseline when conditions deteriorate.

The year-round baseline — sometimes called the Level 0 or standard condition — already restricts outdoor irrigation to the non-peak evaporation hours of 4 p.m. to 10 a.m., seven days a week. This means Georgians never have an unrestricted watering window; the conservation framework is always active. Exemptions exist for new plantings within 30 days of installation, drip or subsurface irrigation systems, hand-held hose watering, and commercial agricultural operations covered separately under the state's agricultural water use permitting program.

When the EPD identifies drought conditions through its monitoring network, it can declare Level 1 Drought Response, which reduces the number of permitted watering days, restricts ornamental fountain operation, and limits certain commercial uses. Level 2 Drought Response tightens those restrictions further, cutting outdoor irrigation to specific days based on property address, banning pressure washing of hard surfaces, and requiring hotels and commercial laundries to adopt water conservation protocols. Level 3 Drought Response, the most severe standard tier, can halt virtually all non-essential outdoor water use and requires commercial and industrial facilities to submit water reduction plans to the EPD.

Trigger metrics used by the EPD to move between levels include stream flow indices on major gauged rivers — particularly the Chattahoochee River at Atlanta and the Flint River at Albany — as well as storage percentages at major Army Corps of Engineers reservoirs, particularly Lake Lanier on the Chattahoochee system. The EPD also incorporates data from the United States Geological Survey stream gauge network, the National Drought Mitigation Center's weekly Drought Monitor classifications, and reports from the state's regional water planning councils, which were established under the 2008 Comprehensive Statewide Water Management Planning Act.

Georgia's eleven Regional Water Planning Councils each develop long-range water plans and can recommend local escalations to the EPD when regional conditions are more severe than the statewide average. In 2026, councils covering the Suwannee-Satilla and Flint River basin regions both formally recommended escalation to Level 2 protocols months before the governor's emergency declaration ultimately superseded standard framework timelines.

One significant feature of Georgia's framework is its treatment of agricultural users. Row crop irrigators on the Flint River, who pump heavily from the Upper Floridan Aquifer during growing season, operate under separate permit conditions that can include voluntary or mandatory curtailment orders issued directly by the EPD when stream flow thresholds on the Flint fall below minimum flow targets set to protect downstream aquatic species including the Flint River spinymussel.

Conservation programs in Georgia

Georgia has invested substantially in water conservation infrastructure and incentive programs over the past fifteen years, and several of those programs are now being accelerated and expanded in response to the 2026 emergency.

The Georgia Water Efficiency Technology (WET) Program, administered by the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority (GEFA), provides low-interest loans and, in some cases, direct grants to local governments and water utilities for infrastructure projects that reduce system water losses. These include leak detection surveys, water main rehabilitation, smart meter deployment, and pressure management systems. In fiscal year 2025, GEFA committed over $42 million in WET Program funding to Georgia water utilities. Under the emergency conditions of 2026, the Governor's Office has directed GEFA to expedite pending applications and expand the eligible project list to include rapid-deployment leak repair programs.

For residential customers, many Georgia utilities participate in the Toilet Replacement Rebate Program, which offers rebates of $75 to $100 per toilet for replacing pre-1994 high-volume flush toilets with WaterSense-labeled models using 1.28 gallons per flush or less. Gwinnett County's utility has historically offered some of the most generous rebate terms in the state, providing up to $100 per toilet with a maximum of two toilets per household per calendar year.

The Irrigation System Audit Program offered through Atlanta's Department of Watershed Management provides free on-site irrigation audits for residential customers with in-ground sprinkler systems. Auditors assess head spacing, pressure, run times, and controller programming, and provide written recommendations. In the current drought emergency, the Department has tripled its auditing staff and is processing audit requests on a priority basis.

Residential customers of Savannah's water utility can access free Water Conservation Kits that include low-flow showerheads rated at 1.5 gallons per minute, faucet aerators, toilet leak detection tablets, and a hose-end shut-off nozzle. The kits are valued at approximately $35 and are available at the utility's customer service office and through select community events.

The Rainwater Harvesting Initiative promoted by the Georgia Cooperative Extension Service and multiple county utilities provides educational resources and, in some counties, rebates of $50 to $75 for rain barrel installation. Augusta-Richmond County's utility has offered rain barrel rebates continuously since 2015. While rain barrels cannot substitute for large-scale supply under current conditions, they reduce irrigation demand on treated municipal water during any rainfall events that do occur.

The EPD's Water Conservation and Efficiency Grant Program targets small and medium-sized utilities serving populations under 10,000, providing grants of up to $250,000 for loss reduction and efficiency projects. Several south Georgia systems serving communities near the Alapaha and Withlacoochee rivers have active applications pending under this program.

Lawn care in Georgia's climate

Georgia spans two major turfgrass climate zones — the warm, humid Piedmont and Coastal Plain that defines most of the state, and the slightly cooler upper elevations of the Blue Ridge foothills in the northeast — and the appropriate approach to lawn care under the 2026 emergency depends substantially on what grass type a homeowner has and where in the state they live.

The dominant lawn grass across most of Georgia is bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon), which thrives in Georgia's hot, humid summers and is remarkably drought-tolerant once established. Bermudagrass enters dormancy when water stress is prolonged, turning tan or brown but remaining alive through extensive root systems. Under the current emergency, the Georgia Cooperative Extension Service is urging homeowners with established bermudagrass to allow dormancy rather than attempt to maintain green color through irrigation. Bermudagrass can survive extended dormancy of eight weeks or more and will recover when rainfall returns, provided the root system is protected from mechanical damage during the dry period.

Centipedegrass is a lower-maintenance alternative common across south Georgia and the coastal regions. It is slower-growing than bermuda, requires less fertilizer, and has moderate drought tolerance, though it is more susceptible than bermudagrass to severe, prolonged water stress. Homeowners with centipede lawns should prioritize deep, infrequent watering during permitted hours to encourage deeper root development rather than frequent shallow irrigation.

Zoysiagrass, particularly the 'Meyer' and 'Zenith' varieties, is increasingly popular in Georgia suburban landscapes because of its excellent drought tolerance once established, its moderate shade tolerance, and its dense, weed-suppressive growth habit. Established zoysia can typically survive on significantly less supplemental irrigation than bermudagrass during summer months.

St. Augustinegrass is common in coastal Georgia, particularly around Savannah and Brunswick, where its tolerance of salt air and partial shade makes it the grass of choice in older coastal neighborhoods. It is, however, the most water-demanding of the common Georgia warm-season turfgrasses and is most at risk during the current exceptional drought. Homeowners with St. Augustine lawns in Savannah and the Golden Isles should expect browning and should avoid attempting to maintain green color through heavy irrigation under current restrictions.

The Georgia Cooperative Extension Service recommends that regardless of grass type, homeowners raise their mowing height by half an inch to an inch during drought stress periods, as taller canopy shades the soil surface and reduces evaporation. Fertilization should be suspended entirely during drought, as fertilizer application to a water-stressed lawn accelerates shoot growth that the root system cannot support.

Drought history and 2026 outlook in Georgia

Georgia's experience with severe drought is neither new nor rare, and the 2026 crisis arrives on top of a historical record that has shaped the state's water law and infrastructure decisions for decades.

The 1986 drought was an early landmark event that exposed the vulnerability of Atlanta's water supply. Lake Lanier dropped to critically low levels, and the Army Corps of Engineers faced intense pressure from Georgia, Alabama, and Florida over how to allocate Chattahoochee River flows — a conflict that evolved into the ongoing Tri-State Water Wars between Georgia, Alabama, and Florida over the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint river basin.

The 2002 drought struck during a period of rapid metropolitan population growth, catching many north Georgia utilities with insufficient reservoir capacity relative to demand. The Chattahoochee fell to near-record low flows and Lake Lanier dropped below 40 percent storage, forcing emergency water-sharing discussions between the Corps of Engineers, the City of Atlanta, and downstream states.

The 2007–2008 drought was the most widely remembered pre-2026 catastrophe. Lake Lanier fell to within inches of its lowest recorded level, and Governor Sonny Perdue held a public prayer vigil on the steps of the State Capitol in November 2007 as reservoir storage hovered around 20 percent capacity. The Flint River at Albany fell to record low flows, and agricultural losses across southwest Georgia exceeded one billion dollars. This drought directly accelerated the passage of the 2008 Comprehensive Statewide Water Management Planning Act and ultimately the 2010 Water Stewardship Act.

The 2011–2012 drought hit central and southern Georgia especially hard, depressing water levels in the Upper Floridan Aquifer and devastating irrigated agriculture on the Flint River plain, where peanut, cotton, and corn growers suffered massive crop failures. Lake Seminole on the Georgia-Florida border, fed by the Chattahoochee and the Flint, reached dangerously low pool levels.

A significant drought in 2016 prompted mandatory restrictions in Atlanta and surrounding counties, and another moderate drought in 2019 caused temporary restrictions in several Savannah-area communities drawing from the Savannah River system. The 2026 event, however, represents the first time D4 Exceptional coverage has reached statewide proportions simultaneously with a wildfire emergency of this magnitude.

The trajectory of Georgia's 2026 drought depends heavily on whether the Atlantic hurricane season delivers significant rainfall to the state before the peak of summer heat amplifies evapotranspiration demands. Climate forecasters at NOAA's Southeast Regional Climate Center have noted that the atmospheric pattern driving the current drought — a persistent high-pressure ridge over the Southeast — has shown unusual longevity, and analog years suggest that breaking events of this type typically require either a tropical system making landfall on the Georgia or Florida coast or a sustained shift in the jet stream position in late summer.

For Lake Lanier specifically, the Army Corps of Engineers' Savannah District has indicated that storage recovery to 70 percent capacity — generally considered a threshold for easing restrictions — would require sustained above-average rainfall across the upper Chattahoochee basin in Union, Towns, and White counties for a minimum of six to eight consecutive weeks. That has not occurred since early 2025.

The Flint River's summer outlook is particularly concerning. Agricultural irrigation season, which typically runs from May through August, places enormous pumping demands on the Upper Floridan Aquifer and on the river's surface flows. With pre-season flow levels already at near-record lows, EPD officials have signaled that Flint River basin agricultural curtailment orders may be issued under the Flint River Drought Protection Act — a mechanism last invoked in 2012 — if stream flow at the Albany gauge falls below minimum flow thresholds.

Indicators to watch through summer 2026 include weekly Lake Lanier storage percentage reports from the Army Corps, USGS stream gauge readings on the Flint at Albany and the Alapaha at Statenville, the Upper Floridan Aquifer water level monitoring network maintained by the Georgia EPD, and the National Drought Monitor's Thursday morning updates. If D4 coverage expands further or if Lake Lanier storage drops below 30 percent, emergency Level 3 restrictions across the north Georgia region become a realistic near-term scenario.

Frequently asked questions about Georgia water restrictions

Can I water my vegetable garden during the current Georgia drought emergency?

Yes, with important conditions. The Georgia Water Stewardship Act and current Level 1 Drought protocols exempt food gardens from the most restrictive provisions, but the time-of-day restriction still applies — you may not use an overhead sprinkler on your vegetable garden between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. However, hand-held watering with a shut-off nozzle is permitted at any time of day, as is drip irrigation and soaker hoses delivering water directly to the root zone. Given the exceptional drought conditions, the Georgia Cooperative Extension Service recommends deep, infrequent watering of food gardens and applying a 2- to 3-inch layer of organic mulch to dramatically reduce evaporation from bare soil between plants.

What exactly is the wildfire connection to the current water crisis in Georgia?

The hundreds of wildfires burning across southern Georgia in spring 2026 are both a consequence of the exceptional drought and an aggravating factor in the water supply emergency. Fires in the Okefenokee region, Lowndes County, Lanier County, and adjacent areas have consumed enormous volumes of water drawn from rural ponds, municipal fire hydrant systems, and tanker operations. In some south Georgia communities, fire suppression activity temporarily reduced pressure in distribution systems. Beyond the immediate supply competition, wildfires destroy vegetation that intercepts rainfall and promotes infiltration into the Upper Floridan Aquifer, meaning the recharge benefits of future rainfall events in burned areas may be diminished for months or years.

Does the Governor's State of Emergency change the water restriction rules that apply to me?

The April 22, 2026 declaration does not itself create a new set of specific irrigation rules for individual residents — those rules flow from the Water Stewardship Act baseline and the Level 1 Drought protocols activated by the Georgia EPD and local utilities. What the emergency declaration does is unlock additional state resources, expedite regulatory approvals for emergency water infrastructure actions, authorize intergovernmental water sharing agreements, and allow the EPD to move more quickly to escalate drought response levels if conditions worsen. It also activates the legal framework under which Valdosta and other south Georgia utilities implemented their more aggressive mandatory restrictions beyond the standard Level 1 framework.

My HOA sent me a violation notice for having a brown lawn. What should I do?

Under O.C.G.A. § 12-5-7 and the Georgia Water Stewardship Act, HOA covenants cannot be enforced in ways that would require you to violate state outdoor watering restrictions. If your lawn is brown because you are complying with mandatory restrictions, you have a legal defense against HOA enforcement action. Document the applicable restriction notices from your local water utility, note the current drought emergency declaration dates, and respond in writing to the HOA citing the state law preemption. Request a formal hearing under the Property Owners' Association Act (O.C.G.A. § 44-3-220 et seq.) if the HOA continues to pursue the violation. In most cases, a written response citing the statute will resolve the matter without further escalation.

How low is Lake Lanier right now, and when will restrictions ease?

Lake Lanier's storage levels are monitored in real time by the Army Corps of Engineers' Savannah District, which publishes daily pool elevation and storage percentage data online. As of spring 2026, storage had fallen to levels not seen since the 2007–2008 drought crisis. The EPD uses storage recovery at Lake Lanier as a key indicator for relaxing Level 1 restrictions, but the threshold is not simply a single percentage — it involves sustained recovery trends over multiple weeks combined with improved stream flows on the Chattahoochee at Atlanta. Restrictions are unlikely to ease before late summer 2026 at the earliest, and only if tropical weather systems deliver meaningful rainfall to the upper Chattahoochee basin in Union and Towns counties.

Are there any exemptions from the water restrictions for newly installed landscaping?

Yes. The Georgia Water Stewardship Act provides a 30-day establishment exemption for newly installed sod, seed, or plants, during which more frequent irrigation is permitted to ensure establishment. However, this exemption requires the property owner to notify their water utility and, in some jurisdictions, to obtain a temporary variance certificate before beginning irrigation outside the standard restriction schedule. Under current emergency conditions, several Georgia utilities have paused processing new variance applications for commercial landscaping projects. Homeowners undertaking new plantings are strongly advised to contact their utility before installation to confirm whether the exemption process is currently active in their service area.

What are the penalties for businesses that violate outdoor watering restrictions in Georgia?

Commercial and industrial violations carry substantially higher potential penalties than residential violations. Under Georgia EPD enforcement authority applicable during declared drought emergencies, businesses can face fines of up to $5,000 per day per violation under the Georgia Water Quality Control Act. Local utilities may also issue separate civil penalties under municipal ordinance. Commercial irrigation systems, car wash facilities, golf courses, and large-property commercial landscaping operations are the most frequently cited categories during Georgia drought events. Businesses operating automated irrigation systems are responsible for ensuring their controllers are programmed to comply with all current restrictions, and the defense that "the controller was set incorrectly" is not considered a mitigating factor by most Georgia utilities or the EPD once a formal violation notice has been issued.

Can Georgia utilities force me to install a smart meter during the drought emergency?

Georgia utilities can require customers to accept meter replacement or upgrade as part of their normal service infrastructure management, and the drought emergency has accelerated smart meter deployment programs at several large utilities. However, smart meter installation programs are generally subject to standard utility service agreement terms rather than being imposed as emergency mandates on individual customers. The data from smart meters benefits both the utility — enabling it to detect violations and system leaks more efficiently — and customers, who can use interval consumption data to identify their own irrigation overuse and adjust accordingly. If your utility offers a smart meter with online usage monitoring, accepting it is strongly advisable during current conditions, as it allows you to track your consumption in near-real-time and verify your own compliance with restriction schedules.