Automatic lawn sprinklers are supposed to go quiet across Frisco starting Sunday, Nov. 1, when the city's winter watering guidelines take over from the fall schedule and stay in place through March 31.
The winter rule is short: turn off lawn sprinkler systems. Residents may still use a hand-held hose, soaker hoses, drip irrigation or bubbler systems when plants need water, according to the city's Water Resources page and the November Public Works report going to the City Council on Tuesday.
Through Saturday, the city's fall guidelines allowed one watering day a week, on a household's regular trash day, with a second day permitted when half an inch of water or more was recommended. Year-round limits listed by the city remain: no watering with automatic irrigation between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., and no planting or watering of cool-season grasses.
The report tells residents not to worry if lawns turn brown. Grass sleeps through the winter, it says, and will come back in spring.
What the September numbers show
The Public Works report, which covers September, gives a look at how the city polices water use:
- 1,571 reports of water waste came in through the myFRISCO app, by far the most common request on the app that month.
- City staff sent 1,235 courtesy notices and 386 violation notices.
- Residents asked for 57 exemptions, and 40 were granted.
- City irrigators performed 632 free sprinkler checkups, which the report credits with saving about 8.76 million gallons of water.
Frisco used 2.34 billion gallons of water in September, the report says. Since August, usage totals 4.8 billion gallons, which the report puts at 31.4% of the city's take-or-pay threshold of 15.36 billion gallons.
