Pender County, NC Landscaping Rules: Water Restrictions (2026)

Pender County Code § 32-251 lays out five escalating stages of the county's Water Shortage Response Plan, each triggered under § 32-252 by drought declarations or by finished-water-storage and demand thresholds tracked by Pender County Utilities. Stage 1, Voluntary Reductions, asks all users to cut normal use by five percent and caps landscape irrigation at a maximum of one inch per week, alongside other voluntary conservation steps, with no penalty for noncompliance at this stage. Stage 2, Mandatory Reductions I, is enforceable: customers must cut water use ten percent compared to their prior month's bill, irrigation is limited to a half inch per week and restricted to the hours of 8:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m., outdoor washing of impervious surfaces is prohibited, and pool filling is barred except for minimal make-up water.

Stage 3, Mandatory Reductions II, requires a 20 percent cut, bans irrigating grass lawns outright, and layers on a drought surcharge of 1.5 times the normal water rate. Stages 4 and 5 push reductions to 25 percent and full rationing, with surcharges rising to two and then five times the normal rate and outdoor water use limited to firefighting. Enforcement runs through § 32-254: mandatory-stage violations draw a warning on a first offense, a $250.00 fine on a second, and service discontinuation on a third, while emergency-reduction and rationing violations start at $250.00 and escalate to disconnection. Customers may apply for a variance under § 32-255, decided within two weeks based on demand impact, duration, alternatives and economic hardship.