City of Cape Coral to crack down on water usage

Cape Coral is cracking down on water usage. So, crews are keeping a close eye on your lawn.

As the City of Cape Coral deals with a water shortage, WINK News reporter Zach Oliveri rode along with workers as they made sure no one was breaking the rules.

Cape Coral Code Enforcement officer Dave Foley spends his mornings in the pitch black, with his lights flashing and patrols the streets. He is looking for two things – sprinklers or wet driveways.

Both of these are violations of the city’s watering ordinance. “It’s hard to tell people you can’t water. But they want their grasses green,” Foley said.

This, during dry season, is a tall task. For code enforcement, Tuesdays are the best days to find these violators since no one is allowed to water.

During that drive, Oliveri spotted five homes that were in violation. “This guy is watering,” said Foley.

So, when Foley spots those, he takes a picture to document the home and then sees if they are a repeat offender. First-timers get a warning. The second offense incurs a $100 citation.

Just last week, the City of Cape Coral issued 139 watering violations. All of this is to slow water loss from our freshwater canals.

“A lot of people are on wells in the northeast northwest, and they rely on that water from the wells. And here we are using it all up for our lawns,” Foley said.

Those purple fire hydrants around Cape Coral are fed with that same water. They issued a water warning to make sure the city had enough water to meet those needs. “We’ll be writing until our hands fall off,” said Foley.

So, follow the rules or face new restrictions.

An alternative to the sprinklers is hand-watering your lawn. That is allowed any time on any day. There is a list below that you can review to know when you are allowed to use sprinklers to water your lawn: