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Water restrictions tighten in Pinellas County

This has been a tough year in these parts water-wise.

We just haven’t had as much rain as we usually do, and that has caused some concerns about the availability of drinking water. So in March the Southwest Florida Water Management District decided on a series of water restrictions. It’s called Modified Phase IV Water Shortage restrictions, but what it means is the highest level of water use restrictions.

You can only water your lawn once a week. There are also restrictions on car washing, power washing, hand water, use of fountains and other decorative water devices, and a whole slate of other things.

Just exactly what those restrictions are vary according to where you actually get your water. For example, We get our water from the county, so that means no car washing at all, no fountains at all, and no power washing at all (unless it is done by a power washing company.) The actual restrictions may be a bit different if you get your water from a municipality, for example.

New lawns can be watered more than one day a week, but only for 30 days. And homeowner associations can’t force home owners to install new lawns, even if the old lawns are completely dead.

Water is always an issue here in Florida and will be an increasing source of concern as more and more homes and businesses are built here. Most of Florida sits on a massive aquifer, but even that is becoming over-taxed. And Pinellas County is oneof the few places in the state that can’t draw on the water under it’s own ground. As a peninsula, Pinellas County does not sit atop useable water and must pipe it in from elsewhere — most if not all of Pinellas’ water comes from Pasco County, to the north.

To learn more about water use restrictions in Pinellas County, visit the Pinellas County Utilities wesbite at http://www.pinellascounty.org/uTilities/water-restrict.htm

Tags: lawn watering, pinellas county

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 3:23 pm and is filed under North Pinellas County. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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