Water restrictions in El Paso County, TX — also called the watering schedule, outdoor irrigation rules, or drought ordinance — set which days and hours you can run sprinklers or irrigation.
El Paso County sits in the arid Chihuahuan Desert. The county itself sets no watering rules; conservation comes from El Paso Water inside the city and from irrigation districts, wells, and TCEQ drought plans in unincorporated areas dependent on Rio Grande allocation.
El Paso County has no countywide watering ordinance because Texas counties lack that authority. Water rules depend on the provider. Inside the City of El Paso, El Paso Water, a city utility, enforces strict conservation and watering-day limits. In unincorporated areas, supply comes from wells and from irrigation and water-improvement districts. El Paso County Water Improvement District No. 1 delivers Rio Grande water from Elephant Butte Reservoir under the Bureau of Reclamation's Rio Grande Project and the 1938 Compact. When the reservoir is low, each customer receives only a percentage of their allocation, and the district has not had a full allocation in about a decade. Public systems file drought contingency plans with the TCEQ, where mandatory restriction stages trigger.
The county issues no watering citations. Restrictions are enforced by your provider: El Paso Water penalizes off-schedule irrigation for city customers, irrigation districts control allocation timing and volume, and TCEQ oversees drought contingency plan stages for public water systems.
Other ordinances people look up for this city. Green dot = verified primary-source excerpt.
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El Paso County Parks & Recreation runs Ascarate Park and other county parks, each with posted operating hours and rules. Overnight camping and after-hours us...
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Texas counties cannot zone, so unincorporated El Paso County has no light-trespass ordinance. Light spilling onto a neighbor's property is not handled by a c...
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Texas counties cannot zone, and the state outdoor-lighting authority for counties near observatories or military bases does not reach El Paso County, so the ...
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Texas counties cannot zone, so unincorporated El Paso County has no garage-sale-sign ordinance. Signs may be posted on private property with the owner's perm...
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Texas counties cannot zone, so unincorporated El Paso County has no political-sign ordinance regulating signs on private property. Election signs on private ...
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Texas counties cannot zone, so unincorporated El Paso County has no minimum-dwelling-size or tiny-home ordinance. Placing a tiny home instead triggers a sept...
See how El Paso County's water restrictions rules stack up against other locations.
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