California water restrictions come in two layers: a set of permanent statewide bans on specific wasteful uses that apply at all times, and local rules from your water supplier that tighten watering days, hours, and overall use when supplies run short. Fines under state law reach $500 per day, and local agencies add their own penalty schedules on top.
What’s Banned Statewide, All the Time
Several water uses are prohibited year-round under California Code of Regulations, Title 23, section 995, regardless of whether a drought emergency has been declared.1Cornell Law Institute. California Code of Regulations Title 23, Section 995 – Wasteful and Unreasonable Water Uses If you do any of the following, you’re in violation even in a wet year:
- Using potable water to hose down sidewalks, driveways, patios, parking lots, or building exteriors, except when needed for a health or safety reason such as cleaning up a spill or biohazard.
- Irrigating your landscape in a way that produces runoff onto neighboring property, sidewalks, roadways, or parking lots.
- Washing a vehicle with a hose that doesn’t have a shut-off nozzle. Letting the hose run while you scrub is a violation on its own.
- Running a decorative fountain or water feature that doesn’t recirculate its water.
- Watering your outdoor landscape during or within 48 hours after measurable rainfall.
Each of these is classified as an infraction, with a fine of up to $500 for every day the violation continues.1Cornell Law Institute. California Code of Regulations Title 23, Section 995 – Wasteful and Unreasonable Water Uses That penalty is separate from anything your local water agency charges.
What Your Local Water Agency Can Add
Every urban water supplier in California is required to maintain a Water Shortage Contingency Plan with six standardized shortage levels, matched to supply cuts of up to 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and more than 50 percent.2California Legislative Information. California Water Code 10632 When your supplier activates a higher stage, restrictions tighten.
At lower stages you might see limits on which days of the week landscape irrigation is allowed and a ban on watering during midday hours. Moderate stages commonly restrict outdoor irrigation to specific days and specific windows, such as early morning or evening. At higher stages, outdoor watering can be cut to one or two days per week, ornamental ponds and lakes may be off-limits, and the agency can impose mandatory percentage reductions against a baseline period. Some agencies set reduction targets as high as 50 percent at the most severe stages.
Repeat violators can have a flow restrictor installed on the service connection, physically throttling household water pressure until the account comes back into compliance. Because every supplier sets its own schedule and escalation path, the rules that actually govern your faucet are on your provider’s website and billing notices. Two households twenty miles apart can be on different watering days and different penalty structures.
The Non-Functional Turf Phase-Out
AB 1572, signed in 2023, is phasing out the use of potable water to irrigate non-functional turf on commercial, institutional, and certain residential common-area properties.3California Legislative Information. Assembly Bill 1572 Non-functional turf is grass that serves no recreational or community purpose, such as parking lot medians, decorative strips along roadways, and commercial building frontages. Sports fields, school playgrounds, cemeteries, and picnic areas are considered functional turf and remain exempt.
The ban does not apply to single-family residential lawns. It takes effect on a staggered schedule:
- State and local government properties, public agencies, and public water systems: January 1, 2027.
- Other institutional, commercial, and industrial properties: January 1, 2028.
- HOA and community organization common areas: January 1, 2029.
- Government properties in disadvantaged communities: January 1, 2031, or when state funding becomes available for conversion, whichever is later.
The law permits continued watering to the extent needed to keep trees and other perennial non-turf plantings alive. Owners facing economic hardship or critical business needs can apply to the State Water Resources Control Board for a postponement of up to three years. Many local agencies offer turf replacement rebates, with some programs paying $5 to $7 per square foot of turf converted to drought-tolerant landscaping.
Fines and Enforcement
State law sets the ceilings and local agencies fill in the day-to-day enforcement.
On the state side, violating any permanent prohibition under Title 23, section 995 is an infraction with a fine of up to $500 per day.1Cornell Law Institute. California Code of Regulations Title 23, Section 995 – Wasteful and Unreasonable Water Uses A steeper penalty sits in Water Code section 377: if you keep wasting water for more than 31 days after being notified, you face civil liability of up to $10,000 plus $500 for each additional day the waste continues.4California Legislative Information. California Water Code 377 That provision targets people who ignore repeated warnings.
Local agencies usually start with a written warning and escalate from there. In the City of Los Angeles, for example, the first offense draws a written warning with no monetary penalty. Later violations carry fines ranging from $100 to $600 depending on meter size, and a fifth violation can result in a flow restrictor on the service line.5Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Water Conservation and Ordinance Other agencies use different scales, and some tie the fine amount to the active shortage stage. Your provider’s current enforcement schedule has the exact numbers that apply to you.
Protections for Homeowners and Tenants
If you live in an HOA, Civil Code section 4735 makes void any association rule that prohibits low-water plants, artificial turf, or other drought-tolerant landscaping. During a declared drought emergency, your HOA cannot fine you for a brown lawn, and if you install water-efficient landscaping in response to drought restrictions, the HOA cannot force you to remove it after the emergency ends.6California Legislative Information. California Civil Code 4735 One exception: if your property receives recycled water from a retail supplier and you fail to use it for irrigation, the fine protection doesn’t apply.
Tenants have a parallel shield. A landlord cannot pass a drought-related penalty along to a tenant unless the landlord can document that the penalty resulted primarily from the tenant’s own failure to comply with state or local water restrictions. A fine the landlord receives for violations on the property generally stays with the landlord unless the tenant was the one wasting water.
How to Report Water Waste
California runs an anonymous statewide reporting portal at SaveWater.ca.gov. You pick the type of violation from a list that mirrors the permanent statewide prohibitions, enter the location, and submit, with the option to upload a photo.7State of California. Save Water Report Many local agencies also run their own hotlines and online forms, which often produce faster follow-up than the state portal.