{"id":64058,"date":"2026-03-24T18:24:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T22:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=64058"},"modified":"2026-03-24T18:24:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T22:24:26","slug":"no-more-warnings-swiftmud-orders-extreme-water-restrictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/03\/24\/no-more-warnings-swiftmud-orders-extreme-water-restrictions\/","title":{"rendered":"No more warnings: Swiftmud orders ‘extreme’ water restrictions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You heard correctly\u2014the situation has officially escalated. As of today, March 24, 2026<\/strong>, the Southwest Florida Water Management District (Swiftmud) has moved from a “Severe” to an “Extreme” (Modified Phase III)<\/strong> Water Shortage.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The biggest change isn’t just the schedule; it\u2019s the enforcement. The “no more warnings” part is literal: starting 14 days from now, utilities are directed to issue citations immediately<\/strong> for violations without a prior warning.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The New “Extreme” Rules<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

While the one-day-a-week schedule remains, the allowable “windows” have tightened significantly to reduce evaporation during this 25-year record drought.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Your Watering Day (Based on address ending)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • 0 or 1:<\/strong> Monday<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • 2 or 3:<\/strong> Tuesday<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • 4 or 5:<\/strong> Wednesday<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • 6 or 7:<\/strong> Thursday<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • 8 or 9:<\/strong> Friday (and locations with no address)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    2. The New Tightened Hours.<\/strong> Unless your local city\/county has even stricter rules, you must choose only one<\/strong> of these windows on your assigned day:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    • Morning:<\/strong> 12:01 a.m. to 4:00 a.m.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Evening:<\/strong> 8:00 p.m. to 11:59 p.m.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
      \n

      Note: If your property is one acre or larger, you can use both windows.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

      3. Other Key Restrictions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \n
      • Hand-watering:<\/strong> Allowed any day, but only before 8 a.m. or after 6 p.m.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Car Washing:<\/strong> Only allowed on your designated watering day; a shut-off nozzle is mandatory.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Fountains:<\/strong> Aesthetic fountains are now limited to just 4 hours per day<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Restaurants:<\/strong> May only serve water if a customer specifically asks for it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

        Why the sudden jump?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

        The district is facing a massive rainfall deficit\u2014central counties are seeing rainfall totals in the 5th percentile<\/strong>, which is considered “extremely abnormal.” Regional reservoirs, like the C.W. Bill Young, are at less than half capacity (44%), and we still have several months of the dry season left.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        You heard correctly\u2014the situation has officially escalated. As of today, March 24, 2026, the Southwest Florida Water Management District (Swiftmud) has moved from a “Severe” to an “Extreme” (Modified Phase… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64059,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDNcL2Rvd25sb2FkLTEtMTIud2VicD9maXQ9Mjc1JTJDMTgzJnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiTm8gbW9yZSB3YXJuaW5nczogU3dpZnRtdWQgb3JkZXJzICYjODIxNjtleHRyZW1lJiM4MjE3OyB3YXRlciByZXN0cmljdGlvbnMiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.4oeYkhtGv599QjKaWNNq9vwHXGssvYdZI2H_LLrtmcIMQ","image_type":"featured","custom_text":""},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[14179],"class_list":["post-64058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-no-more-warnings-swiftmud-orders-extreme-water-restrictions"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64058"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64060,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64058\/revisions\/64060"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}