Pasco, WA Landscaping Rules: Water Restrictions (2026)

Under PMC 13.85.180, the City of Pasco "may at any time issue orders suspending or restricting the use of water for irrigation purposes, zoning the City and assigning specific days or hours for irrigation and sprinkling." That same section requires irrigation customers to use water efficiently, bars waste, and orders prompt repair of broken pipelines or malfunctioning sprinklers, making the waste of water grounds for the City to suspend a property's irrigation water use outright. A near-identical restriction authority for the separate domestic/air-conditioning water system appears at PMC 13.32.080.

PMC 13.85.190 fixes the operating window itself: "The irrigation season shall be defined as the months of April through October of each year." Because the City's piped irrigation utility (fed by the Franklin County Irrigation District under PMC 13.85.070) only operates in that seven-month window, properties served by the utility are without City irrigation water from November through March regardless of any drought order. During the season, PMC 13.85.200 charges irrigation service monthly by rate category, including a base rate for single-family lots under 15,000 square feet and for landscaped/irrigated areas under 10,000 square feet, with additional per-unit or per-acre charges for larger lots and for public parks, playgrounds and open spaces.

Enforcement runs through the Public Works Director and the City Manager, who administer the utility under Chapter 13.85 PMC generally. PMC 13.85.170 lets the Public Works Division prioritize which customers keep service if supply runs short. A customer who disputes an irrigation charge or a restriction's application to their property may petition the Director of Public Works in writing under PMC 13.85.220; the Director's decision on that review is final, with no further administrative appeal specified in the chapter.