Most Cook County water utilities draw from Lake Michigan under Illinois Department of Natural Resources allocation permits, which require demand-management ordinances limiting lawn watering, typically odd-even day rules and bans during peak afternoon hours.
Illinois Lake Michigan Water Allocation rules (IDNR Office of Water Resources, 17 Ill. Adm. Code 3730) cap each suburb's withdrawal and require demand-management programs as a condition of allocation. Standard rules include odd-even-day lawn sprinkling, no watering between noon and 6 p.m., metering, and leak repair mandates. The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District handles wastewater, not supply. Non-Lake Michigan suburbs draw from groundwater or join the Northwest Water Commission and DuPage Water Commission. Drought-stage triggers and per-capita reduction targets are set in each utility's allocation permit and enforced through municipal ordinances with escalating fines.
Watering on the wrong day, during banned afternoon hours, or with unrepaired leaks triggers municipal warnings followed by fines that escalate from $50 to several hundred dollars per offense and possible water-service restrictions in drought stages.
Other ordinances people look up for this city. Green dot = verified primary-source excerpt.
Des Plaines, IL
Des Plaines City Code 6-2-7(E) applies its dBA limits to vehicles and equipment on the public right of way (excessive at 65 dBA daytime / 50 dBA quiet hours ...
Des Plaines, IL
Des Plaines City Code 6-2-7(D) makes it unlawful to make or continue any sound determined to be excessive. Outside quiet hours, 6-2-7(E)(5) sets the threshol...
Des Plaines, IL
Des Plaines City Code 6-2-7(F) makes it unlawful to operate any sound-production or amplification device whose sound crosses a property line and raises total...
Des Plaines, IL
Des Plaines City Code Section 7-3-8 prohibits parking on designated streets during declared snow removal operations so that plows can clear the roadway; viol...
Des Plaines, IL
Des Plaines requires fences and the full lot to be properly maintained, including portions of a lot where a fence is not on the property line, and limits fen...
Des Plaines, IL
Des Plaines prohibits barbed-wire and electrically charged fences in residential areas; they are allowed only in nonresidential districts where the Zoning Ad...
Side-by-side rule comparisons with other cities in Cook County.
See how Des Plaines's lawn watering restrictions rules stack up against other locations.
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