One Watering Day a Week Stays: St. Johns County Is 8.3 Inches Short on Rain

The once-a-week watering rule is not going away. St. Johns County confirmed on Aug. 13 that the St. Johns River Water Management District's Phase III Extreme Water Shortage Order, in place since May 11, still applies to every address in the county, afternoon storms or not. At the end of July the county sat roughly 8.3 inches below its 12-month average rainfall, and the county can write citations for irrigating on the wrong day.

That last part is what catches people. A lot of households in Nocatee, Fruit Cove, Ponte Vedra Beach and St. Augustine watched the sky open up in July and quietly turned the timers back on.

Your day, in one line

Landscape irrigation is limited to one day per week, and never between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Property	Watering day
Even addresses	Sunday only
Odd or no address	Saturday only
Non-residential	Tuesday only

The rules cover water from public and private utilities, private wells and pumps, and ground or surface water. New sod and plantings, pressure washing, aesthetic water features and various non-essential commercial uses carry their own limits.

Four ways to get cited

St. Johns County lists exactly what earns a citation: watering outside your assigned day or hours, leaks in the irrigation system, over-watering that runs off into a neighbor's property or the right-of-way, and running the system after significant rainfall. Florida law already requires a working rain sensor, so a broken one is not a defense.

Most violations in a subdivision come down to a controller nobody has looked at since the last time clocks changed, or a cracked head soaking a sidewalk at 2 a.m. Checking the timer takes five minutes.

Why the storms didn't fix it

The district does not set restrictions county by county. It weighs rainfall, aquifer levels, river and stream flows and lake levels across the whole service area, and much of that area is drier than we are. Baker County finished July more than 22 inches below normal.

Conditions here now range from D1 (Moderate Drought) to D2 (Severe Drought). That is an improvement. When the order was issued in May, every county covered by it was in Extreme Drought (D3), the largest footprint of D3 conditions Florida has recorded since the U.S. Drought Monitor began in 2000.

The size of the hole is the problem. NOAA's drought recovery analysis released Aug. 3 put the figure for Northeast Florida at roughly 32.42 inches of rain over three months to wipe out the drought entirely. Groundwater refills slowly, and a heavy afternoon downpour mostly runs off.

Who is exempt, and who gets a break

• 100% reclaimed water: exempt from the order. Blend it with any restricted source and the restrictions apply again. County utility customers are still asked to follow their subdivision's reclaimed schedule so pressure holds up.
• New landscaping: daily watering allowed for 30 days after installation, running only the zones covering the new material. You will be asked for proof of the install date.
• Hand watering: allowed with a hose and a shutoff nozzle. So is system repair and applying lawn chemicals per label directions.
• Golf courses: fairways and driving ranges no more than once a week, tees and greens no more than three times, minimal rough irrigation, and equipment washing suspended where possible.

What happens next

There is no announced end date. District staff keep tracking rainfall, groundwater and river flows, and restrictions ease only after sustained rain improves conditions across the broader region, not just here. If dry conditions hold, tighter measures remain on the table. Questions about your schedule or a reclaimed water account go to the county Utility Department at (904) 209-2700; the full rule set is on the county's water conservation page.

For more updates like this, visit St. Johns Community Website and follow us on Facebook. Watering days causing headaches on your street? Join the conversation in our Community Forum, and read more alerts and local news coverage from around the county.

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