The largest use of outdoor water in summer is lawn irrigation. Lawn watering is the primary target of the Phase III water usage restrictions. By observing the one day per week lawn watering restriction, The City of Fargo aims to achieve the targeted 25% City-wide water usage reduction.
Automatic sprinkler systems are recommended to operate overnight to limit water losses due to evaporation. The Phase III restrictions are not intended to limit or prohibit any commercial lawn care businesses.
The following are exceptions to the Phase III restrictions:
- Hand-watered flowers and plants.
- Vegetable and flower gardens.
- Newly-planted landscaping, trees and shrubs.
- Newly-planted yards or newly-sodded lawns.
- Water used to control dust or compact soil.
- Using drip irrigation, bubblers, hand watering or other systems that do not propel water through the air.
- According to the Phase III Lawn watering schedule map (located at the top of this page), residents may wash their vehicles at their personal residence on their designated watering day.
- Irrigation necessary for one day only where treatment with an application of chemicals requires immediate watering to preserve an existing landscape.
- Visually-supervised operation of watering systems for short periods of time to check system condition and effectiveness (e.g. winterization of water sprinkler systems).