Water restrictions eased for local counties

Jay Pasqua is a survivor. He runs a small landscaping and property maintenance company. The long drought nearly killed the business he spent 12 years building.

But now things have changed.

"Last year we were going anywhere between seven and ten days between cuts," Pasqua said of the times he would mow client's lawns. "Now we go every week and sometimes that's not actually enough."

Pasqua is busy because it's been raining a lot. The South West Florida Management District has been keeping close track of rain fall levels.

Deputy Director Richard Owen told board members municipal water supplies are adequate, rain fall levels have returned to normal and there is enough water to supply the area's demand for more than 200 days.

"At this time all of the water resource indicators indicate that we are no longer in a water shortage," said district spokeswoman Robyn Felix.

Experts credit the situation to an unusually wet winter followed by a return to normal summer weather patterns that bring heavy rain showers almost daily. As a result the district board voted to ease tough water use restrictions.

As of Thursday the once a week limit on all residential landscape irrigation will expire. Instead most people in the district's 16 counties will be allowed to water their lawns twice weekly. Water managers say conservation is still critical.

"We're getting ready to go into the concentration of our rainy season in July, August and September," director Dave Moore noted. "It's harmful to over water your yard."

The toughest water use restrictions ever, so-called Phase 4, were imposed in April, 2009 when the area ran dangerously close to running out of water.

"The CW Bill Young Reservoir was dry. All of our lakes and rivers were at their absolute lowest levels," Felix said. "We've seen almost a 100 percent turn around from where we where last year."

While rainfall levels have retuned to normal, Pasco, Hernando, and Sarasota counties are considering ordinances that would continue to impose the old, tougher water use restrictions. Those county boards will meet within the next several weeks to impose the tough restrictions.