JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 The St. Johns River Water Management District expanded its \u201cmoderate water shortage\u201d list this week, adding more Northeast Florida counties as local water levels continue to plummet amid a significant dry spell. <\/p>\n
Nassau, Clay, St. Johns, and Putnam<\/a> counties now join Baker, Bradford, and Duval in a Phase One water shortage. While the district is currently only asking for voluntary conservation, officials warn that mandatory rules are just around the corner if the region doesn\u2019t see significant rainfall. <\/p>\n >>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n According to Clay Coarsey, director of the district\u2019s division of water supply planning and assessment, the region is facing a nearly 12-inch rainfall deficit. <\/p>\n \u201cWe typically see roughly 50 inches of rainfall,\u201d Coarsey said. \u201cRight now, a lot of the area is in the mid-30s\u2014between 35 to 38 inches.\u201d <\/p>\n Coarsey noted that mandatory restrictions could be enacted within the next week or two, which would likely slash allowable lawn irrigation from two days a week down to just one day a week. <\/p>\n Local business owners are already preparing. In Yulee, Lindsay Pickard has spent the last three years building Amelia\u2019s Native Wildflowers. For her, water isn\u2019t just a utility\u2014it\u2019s the lifeblood of her inventory. <\/p>\n \u201cWe water about twice a week for 20 minutes or so,\u201d Pickard said. <\/p>\n To stay ahead of the drought, Pickard is turning to rain buckets to catch whatever falls from the sky and has begun a rigorous mulching program for her nursery stock. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m adding about a good inch or so of thick mulch,\u201d she explained. \u201cThat helps suppress weeds, but more importantly, it keeps the moisture in the pots during a time like this.\u201d <\/p>\n Water management officials say the public can play a massive role in delaying or avoiding mandatory cutbacks by making small changes at home, like checking sprinklers to see if their system has leaks or broken seals that waste water. As well as running dishwashers and washing machines only when they are completely full. <\/p>\n As the ground continues to dry up, all eyes remain on the sky. Without a \u201cmeaningful\u201d storm system in the immediate forecast, the voluntary \u201cask\u201d for conservation will likely become a requirement soon. <\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 The St. Johns River Water Management District expanded its \u201cmoderate water shortage\u201d list this week,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[982,79739,79737,34515,7840,34052,73529,794,56468,969,116,118,117,6489,79738,634,34053,53219,115,79741,33761,73530,79736,79740,34861],"class_list":{"0":"post-167757","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-action_news","9":"tag-amelias_native_wildflowers","10":"tag-amelias_wildflowers","11":"tag-baker","12":"tag-ben_becker","13":"tag-clay","14":"tag-clay_corcy","15":"tag-duval","16":"tag-fox_30","17":"tag-jack","18":"tag-jacksonville","19":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","20":"tag-jacksonville-news","21":"tag-jessica_salinas","22":"tag-lindsay_picker","23":"tag-local","24":"tag-nassau","25":"tag-nassau_county","26":"tag-news","27":"tag-pickard","28":"tag-putnam","29":"tag-saint_johns_river_water_management_district","30":"tag-sechis_river_water_management_district","31":"tag-st-_johns","32":"tag-yuli"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}