Loudoun County, VA Landscaping Rules: Water Restrictions (2026)

Loudoun County Code Chapter 1046, the Water Supply Emergency Ordinance, applies to anyone served by the Loudoun County Sanitation Authority ("Loudoun Water") potable or non-potable system, in and around unincorporated Loudoun County. 05 has the County Administrator, in consultation with Loudoun Water, establish and publish a Schedule of Designated Outdoor Water Use Days; Loudoun Water updates that schedule as conditions change and must notify customers by direct mailing and newspaper publication. 09. 08(a) authorizes mandatory measures including irrigation with a sprinkler or irrigation system only on designated outdoor water use days, washing vehicles or building exteriors only on those days (or at recycling-equipped wash facilities), watering with containers no larger than three gallons, shutting off ornamental fountains and waterfalls, and not filling pools that are empty or under three-quarters full.

08(b) exempts golf courses, commercial nursery stock, irrigation-system repair/testing, dust-abatement watering of organized-sport athletic fields, and hand-held hoses with a positive shutoff nozzle or a three-gallon bucket. 03(b) makes clear the chapter does not override any separate federal, state, or local permit governing water use. 04(d) as watering shrubbery, trees, lawns, grass, plants, or other vegetation, so a lawn sprinkler running outside a designated day during an active Warning or Emergency Stage is squarely covered. This chapter governs only Loudoun Water customers; incorporated towns such as Leesburg or Purcellville that run separate water systems are not automatically bound by it.