{"id":81948,"date":"2026-09-25T17:13:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T21:13:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=81948"},"modified":"2026-09-25T17:13:31","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T21:13:31","slug":"modified-watering-hours-to-remain-in-effect-through-march-2027","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/09\/25\/modified-watering-hours-to-remain-in-effect-through-march-2027\/","title":{"rendered":"Modified Watering Hours to Remain in Effect Through March 2027"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Polk County will be enforcing its current irrigation restrictions through March 2027 in order to comply with the extension to the Modified Phase III Water Shortage Order<\/a> issued by the Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The one-day-per-week schedule with modified hours was originally set to end after Oct. 1. However, SWFWMD\u2019s Governing Board voted to extend the water shortage order at its Sept. 22 meeting due to ongoing drought conditions throughout the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As per SWFWMD\u2019s water shortage order requirements for public utilities, Polk County Utilities is no longer issuing courtesy letters upon a customer\u2019s first infraction of the watering schedule. If a customer is observed watering outside of their designated day or time, they will receive a citation and possible fines as outlined by Polk County Ordinance No. 09-050.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The modified watering hours apply to all residences, businesses and common areas that are served by Polk County Utilities, regardless of water source. Customers with private wells and those using reclaimed water are also subject to the modified watering hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Homeowners associations (HOAs) may not enforce community standards that would require an increase in water usage outside of the approved watering schedule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customers of other utilities are encouraged to review their municipality\u2019s or governing body\u2019s schedule and restrictions, as their allowable watering days or hours may be stricter than those enforced by Polk County Utilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Details about the watering schedule are available at www.polkfl.gov\/services\/utilities\/water-restrictions\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Polk County will be enforcing its current irrigation restrictions through March 2027 in order to comply with the extension to the Modified Phase III Water Shortage Order issued by the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81952,"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":"","_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":71799,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDlcL1NjcmVlbnNob3QtMjIud2VicD9maXQ9Mjc1JTJDMjgxJnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiTW9kaWZpZWQgV2F0ZXJpbmcgSG91cnMgdG8gUmVtYWluIGluIEVmZmVjdCBUaHJvdWdoIE1hcmNoIDIwMjciLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.fviDL4kQGlqhltzLRhWkrJKpzltDWYItEUR94LyDZccMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA5XC9TY3JlZW5zaG90LTIyLndlYnAiLCJ0eHQiOiJNb2RpZmllZCBXYXRlcmluZyBIb3VycyB0byBSZW1haW4gaW4gRWZmZWN0IFRocm91Z2ggTWFyY2ggMjAyNyIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.x8UiqnKM5nL_sCKfUBBVM-jNFBzF09Dr54p7BZbyzr8MQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[17494,17495],"class_list":["post-81948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-modified-watering-hours","tag-remain-in-effect-through-march-2027"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81948","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=81948"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81953,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81948\/revisions\/81953"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}