Lubbock water restrictions limit landscape irrigation to two assigned days per week based on the last digit of your street address, with evening-only hours from April 1 through September 30. The rules apply year-round to every residential and commercial property on the city’s water system, not only during declared droughts, and violations can bring fines.
Your Two Assigned Watering Days
The last digit of your street address sets your two days. The schedule runs all year:1City of Lubbock, TX. City of Lubbock Code of Ordinances – Division 2 Water Conservation Plan
- Addresses ending in 0, 3, 4, or 9: Monday and Thursday
- Addresses ending in 1, 5, or 6: Tuesday and Friday
- Addresses ending in 2, 7, or 8: Wednesday and Saturday
Nobody waters on Sunday, regardless of address.2City of Lubbock. Spring and Summer Irrigation Recommendations and Restrictions The split spreads demand across the week so the treatment and distribution system never faces a citywide spike on a single day.
When You Can Water During the Day
From April 1 through September 30, you may only irrigate between 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 a.m. on your assigned days. Midday sprinklers lose a significant share of water to evaporation before it reaches the roots, so the ordinance shuts that window entirely during the warm months.1City of Lubbock, TX. City of Lubbock Code of Ordinances – Division 2 Water Conservation Plan
From October 1 through March 31, the time-of-day limit lifts. The hours relax in cooler months so residents can run sprinklers in the warmer part of the afternoon, since early-morning or evening watering in winter can create ice on sidewalks and streets.1City of Lubbock, TX. City of Lubbock Code of Ordinances – Division 2 Water Conservation Plan
What You Can’t Do Any Time of Year
A few rules apply at every stage, in every season. Inspectors look for them, and they’re the most common reason residents get cited.
- No excessive runoff. Water that pools on sidewalks, flows into the street, or enters storm drains is a violation, usually caused by overlong zone times or misaligned heads.1City of Lubbock, TX. City of Lubbock Code of Ordinances – Division 2 Water Conservation Plan
- No irrigating during rain. A rain sensor on your controller handles this automatically, and most modern controllers include one.3City of Lubbock. Water Conservation
- No irrigating when the temperature drops below 35°F. The ordinance sets the cutoff above freezing to give a safety margin against ice.1City of Lubbock, TX. City of Lubbock Code of Ordinances – Division 2 Water Conservation Plan
Broken heads and leaking lines deserve quick repair. A single cracked head can waste hundreds of gallons in one cycle, and the visible runoff is exactly what draws complaints.
What’s Exempt From the Schedule
Not every kind of watering is tied to your two days. The ordinance treats efficient methods differently.
- Hand watering with a hose and shut-off nozzle is allowed any day, any time.2City of Lubbock. Spring and Summer Irrigation Recommendations and Restrictions
- Drip irrigation and soaker hoses are allowed any day, any time, because they deliver water to the root zone with minimal evaporation or runoff.4KCBD. Lubbock Annual Water Conservation Measures Continue Through Sept 30
- Soaker hoses placed along a home’s foundation can run outside the schedule. Lubbock’s expansive clay soil shifts when moisture around the slab swings widely, and consistent watering helps prevent cracking.
New landscape material gets its own break. For up to three weeks after you install sod, seed, or other plantings, the April–September time-of-day limit does not apply, so you can water with an automatic system outside the 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 a.m. window.5City of Lubbock, TX. City of Lubbock Code of Ordinances – Division 3 Irrigation Systems You still water only on your two assigned days during that establishment period.
Commercial Properties and Variances
Businesses follow the same two-day schedule and the same address-based assignments as homes. A commercial property with a landscape large enough that it genuinely cannot complete its irrigation cycles within two days and the allowed hours may apply to the city for a variance.1City of Lubbock, TX. City of Lubbock Code of Ordinances – Division 2 Water Conservation Plan A variance isn’t unlimited watering. The city reviews landscape square footage and system capacity and may grant additional time only if the math shows the standard schedule can’t provide adequate coverage.
Fines and How Enforcement Works
Enforcement is progressive. A first offense usually brings a written notice identifying the specific provision you violated and giving you time to fix it. If a bad timer setting put your sprinklers on the wrong day, reprogramming the controller and confirming the fix with the inspector is normally the end of it.
Continued violations after a notice move to citations in Lubbock Municipal Court. Fine amounts vary depending on the nature of the violation and whether the city is operating under an elevated conservation stage. Historically, residential fines have ranged from roughly $100 to over $250 per occurrence, with commercial violations at the higher end. Repeat offenders face steeper penalties, and the city has authority to restrict water service in extreme cases.
Reporting Water Waste
To report sprinklers flooding a sidewalk, a broken head gushing into the street, or a neighbor watering on the wrong day, call Lubbock’s Water Wasting Hotline at (806) 775-3952. Inspectors typically visit the property before issuing any notice, so a report starts an investigation rather than an automatic fine.
Current Drought Stage
The two-day schedule and the year-round waste rules above are Lubbock’s baseline, sometimes called the voluntary conservation stage. The City of Lubbock Code of Ordinances allows the City Manager to escalate to mandatory emergency stages when demand outpaces production capacity or storage drops to concerning levels. Those higher stages can cut the number of allowed watering days, ban certain outdoor uses outright, or tighten commercial limits.
As of early 2026, Lubbock is operating under its standard baseline restrictions rather than an emergency stage. That can shift quickly in a region where summer demand routinely tests the system, so check the city’s water conservation page before changing your irrigation schedule for the season.