Anaheim watering schedule 2026

Nothing about watering days is enforceable. Anaheim is at Water Reduction Plan 1, also printed as WSCP Level 1, Conservation Awareness, up to a 10% demand reduction, and Table 5 of the plan marks that level "(Voluntary)". City Council moved Anaheim down from Plan 2 to Plan 1 on July 18, 2023, and the city writes: "Anaheim does not currently have any mandatory irrigation restrictions in place." Level 1 contains only encouraged hours and encouraged run times, and each of those rows carries "No" in the plan's own enforcement column.

It did, and that rule is gone. The city states: "Eased restrictions mean that it is no longer required to only irrigate 3 days per week." The pre-2026 Chapter 10.18 that carried Water Reduction Plans I through IV, including the Ordinance 6332 history from May 19, 2015, was replaced in full by Ordinance 6626 on June 9, 2026, and every section of the current chapter now ends with that citation. Three days per week still exists as standby text at Level 2, but Anaheim is not at Level 2.

There is no enforceable hour window at Level 1. The plan says only to "Encourage customers to limit the application of potable water to outdoor ornamental landscaping or turf to the hours between six (6) p.m. and nine (9) a.m., except as necessary for irrigation system maintenance and repairs", and the enforcement column for that row reads "No". The city's FAQ separately encourages watering in the evening and early morning hours. The same 6 p.m. to 9 a.m. window becomes mandatory at Level 2, where the enforcement column reads "Yes".

The run times are encouragement, not a cap you can be cited for. The plan encourages no more than eight (8) minutes per station for non-conserving nozzles, with spray head sprinklers and bubblers given as the examples, and no more than fifteen (15) minutes per cycle with up to two (2) cycles per permitted watering day per station for high efficiency sprinkler nozzles. There is no drip irrigation figure at any level: the word drip does not appear once in the 2025 Water Shortage Contingency Plan. Any per-station drip number attributed to Anaheim comes from repealed pre-2026 text.

Level 2 makes watering mandatory on no more than three (3) days per week: Monday, Wednesday or Saturday for odd-numbered street addresses, and Tuesday, Thursday or Sunday for even-numbered street addresses, with addresses ending in 1/2 or any fraction following the last whole number. Level 3 cuts that to two (2) days per week, Tuesday or Saturday for odd addresses and Thursday or Sunday for even addresses, and Level 4 caps use at one (1) day per week while printing those same four day names. At Levels 5 and 6 all irrigation is prohibited, and Level 6 also lets the city shut off all non-essential water services. The plan does not restate the 6 p.m. to 9 a.m. hours window or the minute limits at Level 3 or Level 4, and it never says the levels stack, so the text does not settle whether those still apply at those levels.

With no watering days assigned, there is no watering day to be excepted from; the exemptions matter only if the city declares Level 2 or higher. Those exceptions include spot watering with a hand-held hose to maintain trees or plants other than turf, irrigation system maintenance or repairs, recycled water, which AMC 10.18.020.030 places outside the chapter entirely, and applying potable water to a food source between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. through drip irrigation or a hand-held hose with a self-closing water shut-off device. A Large Landscape Area of at least three (3) acres can hold an Alternative Compliance Plan approved by the APU General Manager or designee under AMC 10.18.100, and that approval can only change or increase the designated watering days, nothing else. What is actually enforceable now is the set of permanent water conservation requirements in AMC 10.18.130, and the city notes that while Water Reduction Plan 1 only requires voluntary restrictions the State still prohibits various water waste practices.

No dollar amount for an outdoor watering violation appears anywhere in the current Chapter 10.18, and because no watering days are assigned, there is no watering day violation to fine. AMC 10.18.140.020 makes a willful violation of any mandatory provision a misdemeanor punishable under AMC 1.01.370 by "a fine of not more than one thousand dollars or by imprisonment in the City or County Jail for a period not exceeding six months, or by both such fine and imprisonment", with each day of a continuing violation a separate offense. AMC 10.18.140.030 also allows civil citations under AMC Chapter 1.20, but the amounts sit in a schedule of fines adopted by resolution of the City Council that is not printed in the code, so no civil dollar figure is reported here. A civil citation can be contested by filing a request for administrative review within thirty (30) days of the citation date, with a deposit of the full fine or a hardship waiver application.

Anaheim Public Utilities is the retail water supplier for the City of Anaheim, and AMC 10.18.020.010 extends the chapter to customers served outside the city limits as well. Its imported water comes from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and its groundwater from the Orange County Water District. When Anaheim noticed the hearing on its 2025 plan on March 30, 2026, it notified the County of Orange and the cities of Stanton, Placentia, Buena Park and Fullerton. Other retail suppliers border Anaheim, including Garden Grove, Orange, Santa Ana, Cypress, La Palma, Villa Park and Yorba Linda Water District, and each sets its own schedule, so an address a block outside Anaheim can face mandatory watering days while Anaheim has none. Check the supplier named on your water bill.

Use Anaheim Anytime, the city's service request app and web portal, or call 311 at 714-765-4311 to report excessive water waste anonymously. The city's instruction is in capitals: "PLEASE MAKE SURE TO PROVIDE EXACT ADDRESS LOCATION AND IDENTIFY WATER WASTE ISSUE." Anaheim Public Utilities can also be reached directly at 714-765-4250, and it lists responding to water waste reports as one of its standing conservation activities. Increased water waste patrols are a Level 2 response action in the 2025 plan, not something in force at Level 1.