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Last checked against official SJRWMD guidance in early July 2026. Water shortage phases can change as drought conditions improve or worsen — always confirm current status at sjrwmd.com/wateringrestrictions before assuming this page reflects today’s exact rules.

Duval County Is Currently Under a Phase III Extreme Water Shortage

The St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD) declared a Phase III Extreme Water Shortage for Duval, Clay, St. Johns, Nassau, Putnam, Flagler, and several other Northeast Florida counties on May 13, 2026, following months of below-average rainfall and declining groundwater levels. As of the most recent local government update we could confirm (July 1, 2026), that Phase III declaration remains active. This is a step up from the Phase I and Phase II shortages declared earlier in 2026, and it comes with real restrictions homeowners and businesses need to know about — including some that specifically mention pressure washing.

What Phase III Actually Restricts

  • Landscape irrigation is limited to one day per week, and never between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m.
  • Watering schedule: odd-numbered or no addresses water Saturday, even-numbered addresses water Sunday, and non-residential properties water Tuesday.
  • Irrigation is capped at three-quarters of an inch of water per zone, up to one hour per zone.
  • Commercial, industrial, and institutional users must suspend certain non-essential water uses, and golf course fairway irrigation is limited to one day per week.
  • Aesthetic water use is prohibited, and the official order specifically states that additional restrictions apply to activities such as street and pressure washing.

So Can You Still Get Your House Pressure Washed?

Here’s the honest answer: the Phase III order names pressure washing directly as an activity facing additional restriction during this water shortage, which is a real difference from earlier phases that mostly targeted lawn irrigation. The publicly available guidance we’ve reviewed doesn’t spell out a precise, itemized rule for every type of residential exterior cleaning job the way it does for irrigation schedules, so the safest approach is to check current SJRWMD and local municipal guidance for your specific address before scheduling non-essential washing, and to ask any company you hire how they source their water and whether their approach fits within current restrictions.

What we can tell you honestly about our own operation: we bring tanked water for most jobs rather than drawing continuously from a customer’s potable connection, which reduces demand on the municipal system compared to a job that runs entirely off a garden hose. That’s a meaningfully different water-use profile than residential irrigation, but it does not automatically mean every pressure washing job is unaffected by a Phase III order — and we’d rather tell you that plainly than make a blanket promise we can’t fully back up.

If you have a specific, time-sensitive reason to get exterior cleaning done right now — an HOA compliance deadline, a home sale closing, storm cleanup — tell us when you request a quote, and we’ll talk through it honestly rather than just take the job without mentioning the current restrictions.

What This Means for HOA Compliance Letters

Under SJRWMD Water Shortage Order 2026-006, no HOA, property manager, or community standards enforcement may require a resident to violate the current water shortage order — meaning an HOA generally cannot force you into a water-use violation just to satisfy an aesthetic requirement. If you’ve received an HOA notice about your driveway, siding, or landscaping during this drought period, it’s worth raising the current water restrictions directly with your HOA board or management company alongside getting a quote from us.

For more detail on handling an HOA violation notice itself, see our HOA compliance guide.

Where to Verify Current Status Yourself

We update this page when the district’s phase status changes, but the sources above are the official record and will always be more current than any single company’s website.

Ask Us About Your Specific Situation