{"id":64130,"date":"2026-03-26T18:23:38","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T22:23:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=64130"},"modified":"2026-03-26T18:23:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T22:23:43","slug":"the-southwest-florida-water-management-district-swfwmd-has-officially-moved-the-region-including-polk-county-into-a-modified-phase-iii-extreme-water-shortage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/03\/26\/the-southwest-florida-water-management-district-swfwmd-has-officially-moved-the-region-including-polk-county-into-a-modified-phase-iii-extreme-water-shortage\/","title":{"rendered":"The Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD) has officially moved the region, including Polk County, into a Modified Phase III &#8220;Extreme&#8221; Water Shortage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"p-rc_6740fa366cf0c67a-27\"><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" data-dominant-color=\"a6bbd3\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"190\" height=\"180\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/download-3-5.webp?resize=190%2C180&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-64131 not-transparent\" style=\"--dominant-color: #a6bbd3; aspect-ratio:1.0573476702508962;width:295px;height:auto\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"p-rc_6740fa366cf0c67a-28\">While the order was approved on March 24, 2026, the strict new rules officially go into effect on <strong>April 3, 2026<\/strong>, and are scheduled to last through July 1, 2026.<sup><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Key Restaurant Restriction<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"p-rc_6740fa366cf0c67a-29\">For local dining, the most visible change is a mandate on how water is served:<sup><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>By Request Only:<\/strong> Restaurants are no longer permitted to automatically place water glasses on tables.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Customer Initiative:<\/strong> Servers may only provide water if a patron specifically asks for it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This move is designed to reduce the significant amount of water wasted through &#8220;automatic&#8221; pours that go undrunk, as well as the water and energy used to wash those glasses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Other &#8220;Extreme&#8221; Restrictions for Residents<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"p-rc_6740fa366cf0c67a-32\">The transition from Phase II to Phase III also tightens rules for households and businesses across Lakeland and the rest of the county:<sup><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Tighter Watering Hours:<\/strong> Lawn irrigation remains limited to <strong>once per week<\/strong> based on your house number, but the allowed time slots have been shortened. You may now only water between <strong>12:01 a.m. \u2013 4 a.m.<\/strong> or <strong>8 p.m. \u2013 11:59 p.m.<\/strong> (Properties under one acre must choose only one of those windows).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Fountains:<\/strong> Decorative and aesthetic fountains are now limited to just <strong>4 hours of operation per day<\/strong>, and the hours must be clearly posted.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Car Washing:<\/strong> Non-commercial car washing is only allowed on your designated lawn-watering day and requires a hose with an automatic shutoff nozzle.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Pressure Washing:<\/strong> This is now prohibited for purely aesthetic reasons (like cleaning a driveway just to make it look nice); it is only allowed when preparing a surface for painting or sealing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Enforcement Update<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"p-rc_6740fa366cf0c67a-37\">Local utilities have been directed to ramp up enforcement.<sup><\/sup> Notably, the &#8220;warning&#8221; period is ending; starting 14 days after the April 3 effective date, officials are expected to issue <strong>citations for the first infraction<\/strong> without a prior warning or courtesy letter.<sup><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"p-rc_6740fa366cf0c67a-38\">The restrictions come as the region faces a rainfall deficit of nearly 14 inches, leading to &#8220;severely abnormal&#8221; levels in local aquifers and lakes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While the order was approved on March 24, 2026, the strict new rules officially go into effect on April 3, 2026, and are scheduled to last through July 1, 2026.&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64131,"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":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDNcL2Rvd25sb2FkLTMtNS53ZWJwP2ZpdD0xOTAlMkMxODAmc3NsPTEiLCJ0eHQiOiJUaGUgU291dGh3ZXN0IEZsb3JpZGEgV2F0ZXIgTWFuYWdlbWVudCBEaXN0cmljdCAoU1dGV01EKSBoYXMgb2ZmaWNpYWxseSBtb3ZlZCB0aGUgcmVnaW9uLCBpbmNsdWRpbmcgUG9sayBDb3VudHksIGludG8gYSBNb2RpZmllZCBQaGFzZSBJSUkgJiM4MjIwO0V4dHJlbWUmIzgyMjE7IFdhdGVyIFNob3J0YWdlIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJoaWdod2F5IiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.5K43Yg_nbTGWWA_jMAYVD2Ty1O25Kkq3wB1L9DxWwagMQ"},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[14200,14201,14199],"class_list":["post-64130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-including-polk-county","tag-into-a-modified-phase-iii-extreme-water-shortage","tag-the-southwest-florida-water-management-district-swfwmd-has-officially-moved-the-region"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64130","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=64130"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64132,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64130\/revisions\/64132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}