Background: Audubon of Florida has worked for years to promote water conservation and strong laws to ensure the Everglades and the wildlife that depend on resilient habitat get the water they need. So it is disturbing that some water utilities are now threatening to challenge the South Florida Water Management District’s Landscape Irrigation Rule and to go even further in an attempt to undermine important state water law. Utilities, in essence, want to claim ownership of water that belongs to the public and potentially weaken important state laws that ensure water is managed in the public interest.