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GREENSBORO — It's the dead of night. All of a sudden, a suspicious noise rouses you from a deep sleep. Your senses tell you something's wrong.

Is your neighbor watering?

Today marks the return of mandatory water restrictions — and the enforcers who will patrol the city's suburban streets for evidence of illicit sprinkling.

They, if history is any indication, will be aided by a shadowy network of informants and tipsters, neighbors wary of suspiciously green lawns amid seas of scorched brown turf.

Violators will be found, promises Allan Williams, the city's water resources director.

"You can pretty much count that people who flagrantly flout this are going to receive citations and fines," Williams said.

To ensure that happens, a cadre of six or eight investigators will sweep the city during and beyond working hours, he said.

They'll be looking for sprinklers running on days other than a neighborhood's designated irrigation day, but they don't necessarily have to see the water flying to write a citation.

Clear circumstantial evidence — water flowing down the driveway, the sprinkler head dripping in the lawn — can also be used to make a case, he said.

They'll have help. The last time mandatory restrictions were in effect, in 2002, the tips flooded in. In fact, he said, there were so many it was hard to keep up.

It can be a touchy subject.

Pam Alexander, who was the head of the Adams Farm neighborhood association in 2002, said neighborhood groups don't need to turn into sprinkler vigilantes.

But, amid a backdrop of rationing and restrictions, sometimes suspicion can be unavoidable.

"People watched each other the last time," she said.

"If someone's lawn turned green, you would wonder if people were watering at night."

Compared to the last time mandatory restrictions took effect, the department is considering extra steps to make an ironclad case against offenders.

They might be armed with cheap digital cameras, just in case anyone decides to get cute.

"People will argue with you," Williams said. "There have been some pretty creative excuses."

For example, someone might insist they were only using a hose — permitted under current restrictions — but there happens to be a perfect wet circle on the lawn.

That's still a ticket.

For the most part, though, there's not much room for debate when the water's flowing.

"It's pretty straightforward. If the officer catches you doing 45 in a 35, what are you going to say?" Williams said.

In all seriousness, Williams said, the goal isn't to make money or issue fines.

It's simply to save water, as the drought drains the city's reservoirs. Lake Brandt is down more than 2 feet, and Lake Townsend is down more than 4.

Most people heed the restrictions, he said. But some won't.

"When the majority of the people are complying and some say: 'The heck with it. I don't care,' it would not be fair to not go out and enforce against that," he said.

Contact Jason Hardin at 373-7021 or at jhardin@news-record.com