California Water Restrictions by City: What's Banned in 2026

California water law in 2026 looks fundamentally different than it did three years ago. The drought emergency declared by Governor Newsom in 2021 and 2022 ended formally in March 2023, but the rules it produced did not retreat with the storms. The State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) used the emergency window to convert short-term Executive Order N-7-22 restrictions into permanent regulations adopted under SB 552 (2022) and the 2024 update to the Model Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance (MWELO) at 23 CCR §490 et seq. Layered on top of that state floor, each of California's 400-plus water suppliers runs its own conservation tier system, and each city overlays its own municipal code with enforcement penalties that range from a $50 first-warning to $500 per day for repeat violators. The result is a system where the answer to "can I water my lawn on Tuesday morning" depends on three things: the date, your water agency's current drought stage, and the city ordinance that handles enforcement. This guide walks through the state framework, the watershed-level rules, and the specific city codes that determine what is actually banned in 2026.

The 2022 emergency and what survived

Executive Order N-7-22, signed by Governor Newsom on March 28, 2022, was the most aggressive statewide water restriction California had ever issued. It directed SWRCB to ban irrigation of "non-functional turf" at commercial, industrial, and institutional (CII) properties, capped urban water supplier deliveries, and required every supplier to implement Level 2 of its Water Shortage Contingency Plan (WSCP) — typically a 20% conservation target. The CII non-functional turf ban was made permanent by emergency regulations adopted by SWRCB at 23 CCR §996 and §997, and remains in effect in 2026. "Non-functional" means turf at offices, parking-lot medians, and street parkway strips that exists only for aesthetics. HOAs are explicitly covered. Sports fields, school playfields, parks where people gather, and residential lawns are exempt from the CII rule — for residential lawns, the long-term answer is AB 1572, discussed below.

The emergency drought regulations also banned, statewide and permanently: hosing off sidewalks, driveways, and other hardscape; irrigation runoff that flows into the street; using a hose without a positive shutoff nozzle; watering ornamental turf within 48 hours of measurable rainfall; serving water in restaurants except by request; and using potable water in decorative fountains that do not recirculate. Those eight prohibitions live at 23 CCR §996 and apply in every California city regardless of local drought stage. A first violation is an infraction; subsequent violations can carry fines up to $500 per day under Water Code §1058.5.

SB 552 and the permanent conservation framework

SB 552, signed in September 2022, created the long-term backbone for California's water rules. The statute required every urban retail water supplier serving more than 3,000 connections to adopt a six-tier Water Shortage Contingency Plan, with each tier corresponding to a percent reduction in demand (Tier 1: up to 10%, Tier 2: 10–20%, Tier 3: 20–30%, and so on up to Tier 6: greater than 50%). Tiers trigger specific demand-management actions — day-of-week watering limits, time-of-day windows, irrigation duration caps, pool-cover requirements — and the tier is set by the supplier's governing board based on supply conditions. In 2026, most coastal Southern California suppliers sit at Tier 1 or Tier 2; the Colorado River-dependent agencies in the Inland Empire and San Diego County sit at Tier 2; and several Central Valley groundwater-dependent districts have moved into Tier 3.

SB 1157 (Hertzberg, 2022) layered on top of SB 552 the long-run residential indoor water use standard. Beginning January 1, 2025, the statewide standard is 47 gallons per person per day, dropping to 42 gallons per person per day on January 1, 2030. That number is a budget for suppliers, not a meter limit on individual households — but suppliers must use it to design rate structures, and several have already shifted to budget-based rates where exceeding the household allotment triggers penalty pricing.

AB 1572 and the end of decorative grass

The single biggest 2026 change for California homeowners is AB 1572, signed in October 2023. Effective January 1, 2027, AB 1572 prohibits the use of potable water to irrigate "non-functional turf" on commercial, institutional, industrial, and HOA-controlled common-area parcels. "Non-functional" is defined by reference to MWELO: turf that exists primarily for visual appearance and is not regularly used for recreation, civic gatherings, or sports. The phase-in runs in stages — state and local government properties were first on January 1, 2026; CII and institutional properties on January 1, 2027; HOA common areas on January 1, 2028; and residential HOA front yards on January 1, 2029. Single-family residential lawns are not covered by AB 1572. A homeowner can still water a front lawn in 2027, but a homeowner association that maintains a strip of grass along the entrance road cannot.

The enforcement mechanism flows through the local water supplier, which must include a non-functional turf irrigation prohibition in its WSCP and may impose a flow restrictor on properties found in violation. AB 1572 also requires the Department of Water Resources to publish a list of acceptable drought-tolerant turf alternatives and to update MWELO to reflect the prohibition. Cities running rebate programs — Los Angeles, San Diego, the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) member agencies, EBMUD — have aligned their cash-for-grass payouts to AB 1572's compliance deadlines, with rebate amounts increased through 2026 to encourage early replacement.

MWELO and new landscape installations

The Model Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance at 23 CCR §490 et seq. controls new landscape installation. As of the December 2024 update, MWELO applies to all new residential landscapes over 500 square feet and all new commercial landscapes over 2,500 square feet that require a permit, plan check, or design review. The ordinance caps total turf at 25% of the landscape area for residential projects, prohibits overhead spray irrigation on any landscape strip less than 10 feet wide, requires drip or low-flow irrigation for all non-turf plantings, and mandates a soil management plan and a hydrozone schedule. The Maximum Applied Water Allowance (MAWA) is calculated per project using the local reference evapotranspiration value and a plant factor of 0.55 for the project's water budget; landscapes that exceed MAWA cannot be permitted as designed.

Every California city must either adopt MWELO directly or adopt a local ordinance at least as effective. Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, San Jose, Sacramento, Long Beach, Oakland, Fresno, and Bakersfield have all adopted MWELO either by reference or through a stricter local version. The practical effect is that a home addition that includes new front-yard landscape over 500 square feet triggers MWELO review, and the landscape architect's plan must include a hydrozone table and an irrigation schedule.

Greywater and rainwater capture

California's greywater code lives at Title 24, Part 5, Chapter 16A of the California Plumbing Code. A "Tier 1" laundry-to-landscape system — a single washing machine discharging to subsurface or mulched landscape — is allowed without a permit in every California city, as long as the homeowner follows the design rules in §1602A.1.1 (no spray, no contact with edible parts of plants, no pooling, no cross-connection with potable). Tier 2 systems (shower, bathtub, bathroom sink) require a city permit; Tier 3 systems (kitchen sink) require a permit and an engineered design.

Rainwater harvesting is governed by AB 1750 (the Rainwater Capture Act of 2012), which permits residential rooftop collection without a water rights permit. Cities cannot prohibit residential rain barrels or cisterns, but many require building permits for cisterns above 250 gallons (Los Angeles) or 360 gallons (San Diego). Captured water can be used for landscape irrigation without further treatment; potable use requires a Title 22 treatment system.

Los Angeles — the strictest big-city framework

LADWP runs the country's most aggressive municipal water conservation program, codified in Rule 35 of the LADWP tariff and LAMC §121.04 (the Emergency Water Conservation Plan Ordinance). Phase 3 of the Phase 1–4 schedule, in effect continuously since June 2022, limits outdoor watering to two days per week. Properties with odd-numbered addresses water Sunday and Wednesday; even-numbered addresses water Monday and Friday. Watering is allowed only before 9 a.m. or after 4 p.m., and each station is capped at 8 minutes per day for spray sprinklers (or 15 minutes for high-efficiency rotating nozzles). Drip irrigation has no day-of-week or time-of-day limit but is still subject to no-runoff and no-pooling rules.

LADWP fines escalate aggressively: a first violation triggers a written warning; a second within 12 months is $100; a third is $200; a fourth is $400; and continued violations can trigger installation of a flow restrictor under LAMC §121.07. The city's Drought Busters team, staffed by LADWP inspectors, patrols residential neighborhoods and responds to neighbor complaints filed through the MyLA311 portal. Filling a swimming pool requires no special permit, but topping off a pool to compensate for evaporation must use a pool cover when not in use under Phase 3 rules. Washing a vehicle at home is allowed only with a hose equipped with a positive shutoff nozzle; commercial car washes that recirculate water are exempt.

San Diego — Water Authority plus city overlay

San Diego operates under the San Diego County Water Authority's drought management plan, which sits at Stage 2 in 2026 due to ongoing Colorado River allocation cuts. Inside the City of San Diego, San Diego Municipal Code Chapter 6, Article 7 (specifically §67.3801 et seq.) implements the local enforcement framework. Stage 2 limits residential outdoor watering to three days per week (Monday/Wednesday/Saturday for odd addresses; Sunday/Tuesday/Friday for even), with no watering between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Irrigation runtime is capped at 10 minutes per station per day for spray, with no cap on drip. The city's prohibited-uses list at SDMC §67.3804 mirrors the state floor — no hosing of hardscape, no runoff, no decorative fountains without recirculation — plus a stricter San Diego rule that bans irrigation within 72 hours of measurable rainfall (versus the 48-hour state floor).

San Diego's fine schedule starts at a $100 administrative citation for a first violation, $200 for a second within 12 months, $500 for a third, and $1,000 plus possible flow-restrictor installation for a fourth. Refilling a pool is permitted only if the pool has a cover and the cover is in place when not in use. The County Water Authority's WaterSmart Landscape Makeover program offers rebates of up to $4 per square foot for turf replacement, the highest in the state, funded jointly with MWD.

San Francisco — Hetch Hetchy buffer

San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) operates with a much larger supply buffer than Southern California utilities because the Hetch Hetchy system delivers Sierra snowmelt with low evaporative losses. SFPUC sits at Stage 1 of its WSCP in 2026, meaning the conservation target is voluntary 5% reduction and there are no mandatory day-of-week watering limits. San Francisco Health Code Article 12 and the city's Water Conservation Ordinance still impose the statewide prohibitions — no hardscape hosing, no runoff, no decorative non-recirculating fountains — and require commercial properties to use recirculating systems and high-efficiency fixtures. The MWELO update applies to new landscapes citywide. SFPUC's enforcement is light by Southern California standards: warnings for first and second violations, $100 fines after that. The city's "Grants for Greywater" program offers up to $225 toward a residential laundry-to-landscape system.

Sacramento — Stage 1 with the Water Forum overlay

The City of Sacramento runs its water program under Sacramento City Code Chapter 13.04 and the regional Sacramento Water Forum Agreement, which coordinates American River withdrawals among the city, Sacramento County Water Agency, Folsom, Roseville, and other regional utilities. In 2026, Sacramento sits at Stage 1, which limits outdoor watering to two days per week from March through October (Wednesday/Saturday or Tuesday/Sunday depending on address) and one day per week from November through February. Watering is prohibited between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. Year-round, Sacramento requires that all residential properties have a working positive shutoff nozzle on every garden hose under SCC §13.04.815.

Sacramento's fine structure runs $50 for a first violation, $100 for a second, $250 for a third, and $500 for a fourth — modest by Southern California standards but matched by an aggressive citizen reporting program through the city's Water Wise hotline. Sacramento is one of the few large California cities where unmetered service still exists for some older residential properties; the city is on a court-ordered schedule under AB 2572 (2004) to install meters on every residential connection by 2025, and as of 2026 over 98% of connections are metered.

San Jose and the Santa Clara Valley

The Santa Clara Valley Water District (Valley Water) sets the regional drought tier for San Jose and the surrounding cities. Valley Water moved to a 15% conservation call in 2024, equivalent to Stage 2, and held it through 2026 due to continued groundwater overdraft in the south county. The City of San Jose enforces through San Jose Municipal Code §15.10.700 and limits outdoor irrigation to three days per week (Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday for even-numbered addresses, Wednesday/Friday/Sunday for odd). Watering is allowed only before 10 a.m. and after 8 p.m. Spray irrigation is capped at 15 minutes per station per cycle. San Jose's fine schedule runs $100/$200/$500 for first, second, and third violations.

Long Beach — three-stage program

Long Beach Water Department runs one of the most structured tier programs in the state under Long Beach Municipal Code §15.30. Long Beach is currently in Stage 2, which limits outdoor watering to three days per week (no watering on Mondays) and prohibits all watering between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Stage 3 would drop the city to two days per week with a 10-minute spray cap. Long Beach was the first major city in California to ban "ornamental fountains" of any kind in 2015 (since modified to allow recirculating fountains only), and the city continues to lead per-capita conservation among large Southern California utilities.

Oakland and the East Bay

East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) serves Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, Albany, El Cerrito, Richmond, San Leandro, San Lorenzo, Castro Valley, Lafayette, Walnut Creek, Orinda, and Moraga. EBMUD adopted a Stage 1 drought response in 2024 and held it through 2026, with a 10% voluntary conservation target and the statewide prohibited uses in force. The City of Oakland enforces through Oakland Municipal Code Title 13, Chapter 13.08, which mirrors the EBMUD restrictions. Oakland fines are $100 for a first violation, $200 for a second, $500 for a third. EBMUD's WaterSmart Home Survey program offers free residential audits and direct-install of high-efficiency showerheads, faucet aerators, and toilet leak detection dye tablets.

Fresno and Central Valley groundwater pressure

Fresno's situation is different from the coastal cities. The Fresno Municipal Code (Article 12, §6-1201 et seq.) imposes a year-round three-day-per-week irrigation schedule with no watering between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. from June through August. Fresno's water supply is overwhelmingly groundwater, and the city sits inside the Kings Subbasin, which is in critical overdraft under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA, Water Code §10720 et seq.). The Kings Subbasin Groundwater Sustainability Plan, originally rejected by DWR in 2022 and resubmitted in 2024, requires a 20% reduction in groundwater pumping by 2040, which is already showing up as tighter rate structures and conservation programs for both urban and agricultural users. Fresno fines start at $45 for a first violation and escalate to $300 for repeat violations.

Bakersfield and the southern San Joaquin Valley

Bakersfield Municipal Code §14.04.220 implements a three-day-per-week schedule with watering prohibited between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. from May through September. Bakersfield is served partly by California Water Service Company and partly by the City of Bakersfield Water Resources Department, each with slightly different tier rules. Kern County's SGMA groundwater plans are among the most contentious in the state; for urban users, the practical effect is rising rate tiers and stricter outdoor restrictions during summer months.

Orange County and the MWD service area

Orange County's coastal cities — Anaheim, Santa Ana, Irvine, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, Garden Grove — fall under the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California's regional supply program through the Municipal Water District of Orange County. MWD declared a Water Supply Alert in 2022 and a Drought Emergency in 2023; both have been lifted, but the underlying State Water Project allocation remains constrained, and the MWD member agencies sit at Tier 2 in 2026. The City of Anaheim caps watering at three days per week with a 15-minute station limit; Irvine, served by Irvine Ranch Water District, uses a budget-based rate structure under IRWD's Allocation-Based Tiered Rate ordinance, where households exceeding their water budget pay penalty rates that can reach four times the base rate. IRWD's budget system is the model that SB 1157 indoor standards point toward statewide.

The Inland Empire — Riverside, San Bernardino, Cucamonga Valley

The Inland Empire is at the intersection of the most stressed water supplies in the state — Colorado River allocation cuts under the 2023 Lower Basin agreement and State Water Project deliveries below 30% of contract in most years. Riverside Public Utilities operates under Riverside Municipal Code Title 14, Chapter 14.12, with a three-day-per-week schedule and a 10-minute spray cap; the city sits at Stage 2 in 2026. San Bernardino Municipal Water Department uses a similar three-day schedule under SBMC §13.40. Cucamonga Valley Water District, serving Rancho Cucamonga, runs one of the most aggressive turf-replacement rebate programs in the state, paying up to $3 per square foot stacked with the MWD regional rebate.

Fines, enforcement, and what triggers a citation

California's enforcement framework runs on a graduated administrative-citation model authorized by Water Code §1058.5 and Government Code §53069.4. The statewide ceiling for an emergency-regulation violation is $500 per day. Most cities run a four-step ladder: warning, $100, $250, and either flow-restrictor installation or a misdemeanor citation. Most California cities allow neighbor reporting through a 311 portal or drought hotline. Repeat violators may face installation of a flow restrictor — a brass orifice plate that drops the home's flow rate to 1 to 2 gallons per minute, sufficient for indoor sanitary use but insufficient to run irrigation.

Rebate programs and cash-for-grass

The MWD regional rebate program pays a base of $2 per square foot for turf replacement across its 26 member agencies in Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura counties. Member agencies layer additional rebates on top: City of Los Angeles adds $1, San Diego adds $2, Cucamonga Valley adds $1. Total payouts have reached $5 to $6 per square foot in the most aggressive jurisdictions. Outside MWD, EBMUD pays $1 per square foot, Valley Water (San Jose) pays $2, Sacramento Suburban pays $1.50, and most Central Valley utilities pay $0.50 to $1. The state DWR Turf Replacement Program adds another layer for income-qualified households. Rebate eligibility requires pre-inspection, a landscape plan that meets MWELO, drip irrigation conversion, and a post-installation inspection.

Pool, car-wash, and irrigation specifics

Pool drainage is governed by Health and Safety Code §116064.2. Direct-to-storm-drain drainage is prohibited statewide; pool water must go to the sanitary sewer (with the water district's permission, after dechlorination) or be pumped into landscape at a rate the soil can absorb without runoff. Pool covers are required during Stage 2+ in LADWP, San Diego, and several MWD service areas. Topping off above 1 inch in 24 hours can trigger a citation in Stage 2+ jurisdictions.

Home vehicle washing is allowed everywhere in California, but only with a positive shutoff nozzle. Commercial car washes are required under Water Code §13550 to recirculate water; non-recirculating commercial washes have been illegal for new construction since 1992. Many cities (San Diego, Riverside, Anaheim) prohibit home washing of vehicles entirely during Stage 3+.

Drip irrigation is favored across every city's tier system. Where spray heads are capped at 5 to 15 minutes per cycle, drip is typically allowed up to 60 minutes or has no time limit. The MWELO update at §492.7 prohibits new overhead spray irrigation on any landscape strip narrower than 10 feet.

What to do in your city

The state framework — the eight statewide prohibitions, the AB 1572 phase-out of decorative grass, MWELO for new landscapes, and the 47-gallon-per-person-per-day indoor standard — applies everywhere. On top of that, your specific watering days, time windows, station limits, and fine schedule are set by your local water supplier and enforced through your city's municipal code. Before you replace a lawn, fill a pool, or install drip irrigation, answer three questions: What is my water supplier's current drought stage? What does my city ordinance say about watering days, hours, and fines? Am I in an MWD member service area, where the regional rebate stacks with the city rebate? CityRuleLookup maintains a landscaping and water-use page for every California city we cover. The 2027 commercial turf ban is now close enough that HOAs and CII property owners should be planning replacement, not waiting for the deadline.