Winter Haven, FL Water Use Rules: Recycled Water Rules (2026)

Section 19-36, in Article II's Division 1 on water service generally, requires new development inside the City of Winter Haven utility service area to connect to and use the reclaimed/reuse water system for irrigation once a reclaimed/reuse main is within five hundred feet of the project, with the owner or developer liable for the cost of extending that main and its distribution piping into the new development. Where the closest reuse main is farther than five hundred feet away, the owner or developer instead pays a fee in lieu of construction equal to fifty percent of the extension's total cost, as determined by the project's design engineer and approved by the city engineer, and design standards for the extension come from the city engineer's office.

Reuse service is billed and classified separately from potable water under § 19-138(d)(8): a 'general service' reuse connection covers ordinary properties, while a 'large user' connection is any customer with a potential average daily demand of 75,000 gallons per day of reuse water or more and must sign a large user agreement with the city, in pressure, non-pressure, or interruptible/disposal form, approved by the utility director and city commission. 5 percent yearly escalator absent a new commission schedule.