GAINESVILLE - Alachua County has been under water restrictions despite the recent rain and now all of Gainesville could be included in those restrictions.

The commission met for hours only to decide in the end that they would consider adopting the restrictions if the county does on August 7th.

The county has adopted the Suwannee River Water Management's suggested restrictions, but they haven't had a way to enforce it.
 

Going forward, the City of Gainesville will now work with the county to try and create one set of restrictions.

Residents are sometimes unaware which restrictions apply to them because Alachua County is split between the Suwannee River Water Management district and the St. Johns Water Management District.

The new, unified set of guidelines could eliminate the confusion and allow for tighter restrictions in times of drought.

The new set of guidelines would allow the water districts to impose restrictions in emergency water situations.

Some of the restrictions would limit landscape irrigation to only once a week between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Alachua County Environmental Protection says that it will take several more tropical storms to re-fill the aquifer, which is really the problem.

Not enough water soaked into the ground from the previous two storms this year.