St. Pete Standard

The City of St. Petersburg has enacted dry weather protocols to conserve the city’s supply of reclaimed water. Effective immediately, the City will temporarily lower the pressure to decrease the flow of reclaimed water coming from the City’s water reclamation facilities during the hottest times of the day so that the quantity of reclaimed water will be sufficient for irrigating overnight and in the early morning.

Reclaimed water customers may notice decreased pressure coming from their sprinklers from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and are encouraged to adjust their irrigation timers and only water according to the City’s year-round reclaimed water irrigation schedule:

• Water your lawn no more than three days per week.
  • Even addresses should irrigate on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday
  • Odd addresses should irrigate on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday
• Water from 5-9 a.m. or 7-11 p.m. Watering during the heat of the day is inefficient as much of the water used is lost to evaporation and wind drift.

Reclaimed water customers are also asked to turn their automatic sprinkler systems off if there is not adequate pressure for proper operation. This will aid in filling storage tanks so that customers will be able to irrigate.

Reduced supply of reclaimed water is expected for this time of the year and these dry weather protocols are typical for the region, with similar practices currently being carried out throughout Pinellas County.

The City of St. Petersburg would like reclaimed water customers to know that reclaimed water is a limited resource and should be used wisely. The supply of reclaimed water depends on the amount of wastewater being processed at the City’s three water reclamation facilities. It takes five houses worth of wastewater to produce enough reclaimed water for one property.

Reclaimed water pressure will return to normal once the supply of reclaimed water is stabilized. If conditions worsen, the Mayor has the ability to enact mandatory restrictions on reclaimed water.

Updates can be found at www.stpete.org/ReclaimedWater.   

The City of St. Petersburg offers additional water conservation tips, programs, incentives and more at www.stpete.org/WaterConservation.

Original source can be found here.