Created: 5/6/2009 4:00:56 PM 
JACKSONVILLE, FL -- Working in the yard is like therapy for Susan Howell.
While she likes being out there all the time, she is careful about what she does and when she does it.
"I know two days a week. And ours is Wednesday and Saturday," says Howell about her watering restrictions.
She says she makes sure to follow them, but not everyone obeys the rules.
In fact, we found several homes with irrigation systems running when they should not have been.
Click here to see our database on who used the most water in 2008.
What you may not realize is having the system on when it is supposed to be off is severely draining the water supply.
"We are nearing crisis," says Dr. Quinton White, a professor of marine science at Jacksonville University.
He says our future is literally evaporating before our eyes. "Based on the amount of water we were pulling out, we would run out of water from the Aquifer in 2013. That date has gotten a little soft because we're not growing as fast as we were a few years ago."
Florida's water comes out of the Aquifer. It's pure and very little has to be done to it for you to drink it. But that supply is dwindling.
As for where it's going, it's going to a number of homes in Queens Harbor, in Arlington and Springfield.
It's going to several houses out at the Beach. It's also going to former Jacksonville Jaguar Marcus Stroud's Southside home and a sprawling gated estate in Ortega.
The Ortega home belongs to Syed Hussain. Last year, Hussain's river front home used 2.1 million gallons of water.
The average is 72,000 gallons a year. Hussain talked to First Coast News by speaker phone and refused to interview in person.
He says it's all a mistake. His meter's wrong. Hussain says he's hired an attorney to fight the water bills. We called his attorney for comment. He did not call us back.
"We do know there are some customers that don't care. They want their green lawn and money is not a factor to them," says Gerri Boyce, of JEA.
First Coast News contacted the top 20 water users in Duval and St. Johns counties.
None of those we talked to would agree to go on camera. Most said their water usage was high because of leaks in their systems, which have been corrected.
"A lot of people don't know what the average water use is. They don't think about it. What we need to let people know is, we have to start thinking about this water supply not for just us right now but for our kids and our grand kids," says Boyce.
JEA says the Aquifer could be dried up in the next 20 years.
What that means is JEA will have to get your water from somewhere else. One alternative is a desalination plant, which takes water from the St. Johns or the ocean and cleans it so you can drink it.
One is already in Tampa. It cost $158 billion to build. If a desalination plant were in Jacksonville, your water bill could jump anywhere from four to twelve times more than what you pay now.
"People don't understand that they are not paying for water, and when they have to really start paying for what it costs to produce water, water consumption will go down." Dr. White says he believes water restrictions are inevitable. "It's coming and people are going to complain about it.
Howell is already preparing. "Short showers, don't run water while brushing your teeth." She's conserving water now, but she's not doing it just for her. "For everybody, so everybody will have water."
JEA says if you think your water bill is off or if you think you have a leak, they will check your system for you. All you have to do is call JEA at 665-6000.
Click here to see our database on who used the most water in 2008.
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