Palm Coast, FL Water Use Rules: Recycled Water Rules (2026)

Palm Coast's landscape irrigation ordinance, Chapter 24, Article V, sets a strict watering schedule but carves out a full exemption for reclaimed water. Sec. 24-184(7) provides that "the use of water from a reclaimed water system is allowed anytime," and defines a reclaimed water system as one whose primary source is reclaimed water even if supplemented from another source during peak demand. Sec. 24-184(8) extends the same anytime allowance to recycled water drawn from wet detention treatment ponds, provided the ponds are not augmented from ground, off-site surface water, or public supply sources.

Sec. 24-186 goes further and requires use of reclaimed water where it is available: once a utility provides reclaimed water through a point of connection, a property owner may not rely on a private irrigation well for landscape irrigation, citing Florida Administrative Code Rule 40C-2.042(2). That same section separately requires any automatic sprinkler system installed after May 1, 1991 to carry a rain sensor override. The reclaimed water definition itself, in Sec. 24-154, ties eligibility to water that "meets the current state Department of Environmental Protection standards for reuse after flowing out of any treatment plant or works." Under Sec. 24-182(c), a St. Johns River Water Management District shortage order can override any City irrigation provision inconsistent with it once declared, though the reclaimed water exemption is a City rule, not a District one.