- Phase III Water Shortage limits landscape irrigation to once weekly and bans non-essential uses like washing driveways; residents are urged to conserve water and delay new planting.
- Alachua County’s groundwater level fell to the 10th percentile amid the worst drought since 2000, with April rainfall at 0.88 inches versus a 3.38-inch average.
Alachua County and swaths of North Central Florida remain under extreme droughts as the St. Johns River Water Management District declared a Phase III Water Shortage and groundwater fell to the 10th percentile.
Robbie McKinney, manager of the Office of Water Resources for the Suwannee River Water Management District, told the board that it’s the worst drought in decades.
“Really, this is one of the worst droughts that they’ve seen, if not the worst drought they’ve seen, since the U.S. Drought Monitor was conceived back in 2000,” McKinney said at the May 12 meeting…