Harlingen, TX Landscaping Rules: Water Restrictions (2026)

Harlingen's watering days come out of the Harlingen Waterworks System Drought Contingency and Emergency Water Management Plan, adopted in Chapter 48, Division 4. None of the day-of-week rules apply until HWWS declares a stage. Stage 1 is voluntary; the mandatory calendar in § 48-145(d)(2)(a) is what switches on at Stage 2.

At Stage 2, irrigation of landscaped areas is limited to twice per week, and the window is overnight rather than daytime. The text runs between the hours of 8:00 p.m. on the designated watering day to 10:00 a.m. the following morning. The assigned day is really the evening the window opens. An even-numbered address on its Wednesday slot may run sprinklers from 8:00 p.m. Wednesday until 10:00 a.m. Thursday, then again from 8:00 p.m. Saturday until 10:00 a.m. Sunday. Sprinklers running in the middle of the assigned afternoon are outside the window and violate the schedule even though the calendar day is correct.

Assignment is by the last digit of the address. Residential addresses ending in an even number, 0, 2, 4, 6 or 8, water Wednesdays and Saturdays. Addresses ending in an odd number, 1, 3, 5, 7 or 9, water Thursdays and Sundays. Non-residential accounts are assigned Tuesdays and Fridays, which keeps commercial irrigation off the nights the residential half of Harlingen is drawing hardest.

The exemptions are about method rather than timing. Watering is permitted at any time if it is done by means of a hand-held hose, a faucet-filled bucket or watering can of five gallons or less, or drip irrigation. So a Harlingen homeowner keeping new plantings alive between assigned days can do it by hand or on drip without waiting for the schedule. What Stage 2 restricts is the unattended sprinkler, not the hose in your hand.