Water Filtration & Treatment in Fort Lauderdale

A city-run utility on the Biscayne Aquifer

Unlike Miami, Hialeah and Doral, which rely largely on Miami-Dade County's system, Fort Lauderdale produces its own water. According to the City of Fort Lauderdale's 2025 Water Quality Report, the city pumps water from wells that draw from the Biscayne Aquifer, which is the sole source of the city's drinking water.

The city's Customer Service Center (954-828-8000) handles questions about the report, which is also available in Spanish and Haitian Creole by calling that number.

Two plants, two different processes

The city's two plants use different technologies:

• Charles W. Fiveash Water Treatment Plant. Built in 1954 with a capacity of 8 million gallons a day and expanded since to a design capacity of 70 million gallons a day, Fiveash supplies the bulk of the city's drinking water using lime softening.
• Peele-Dixie Water Treatment Plant. A membrane plant; the 2025 report describes it as nanofiltration. Some neighborhoods south of Broward Boulevard normally receive water from Peele-Dixie.

In a March 2026 maintenance notice, the city explained that water from the two plants has a slightly different color because of the different processes, and that all of it meets drinking water standards. It is a good example of why Jorge tests at your tap rather than assuming every Fort Lauderdale home gets identical water.

The same notice explained that Peele-Dixie was shut down temporarily for maintenance at the Fort Lauderdale Country Club Wellfield, and that neighborhoods normally on Peele-Dixie water received Fiveash water for about a week. If you ever notice a short-term change in color, the city's Customer Service Center is the place to ask.

Chloramines, and a change to fluoride

After softening, filtering and aerating, the city disinfects its water with chloramines. The 2025 report lists an average chloramine level of 2.3 parts per million (range 1.9 to 2.8), below the regulatory maximum of 4.0. That residual is what many people notice as a chemical taste or smell.

The same report notes that the city discontinued adding fluoride before July 2025, in compliance with Florida law. If you are comparing older reports with the newest one, that is why the fluoride numbers changed.

Living Water describes its Puronics whole-home systems as removing chlorine and chloramine. See the chloramine filter guide.

From beach towers to canal homes

Fort Lauderdale's housing ranges from oceanfront condo towers along A1A to single-family homes on the canals of neighborhoods like Rio Vista and Coral Ridge, and older homes in areas such as Victoria Park. What fits:

• Condo or apartment: under-sink alkaline RO for drinking water.
• Single-family home: a whole-home city water system, often with RO in the kitchen.
• Hotel, restaurant or other business: an ion-exchange softening plant where equipment needs scale protection. See water softeners in Fort Lauderdale.
• Property on a private well: homes inside the city are typically on city water, but some properties elsewhere in Broward use wells, which have no utility treatment. The system is configured from that well's test; see well water systems and city vs. well water.

What filtration is, and is not, for

Fort Lauderdale's water is treated to meet drinking water standards, and the city monitors it throughout the year. Home filtration does not replace that. What it does is let you choose how your water tastes and smells at home: removing chloramine at every tap, polishing drinking water at the kitchen sink, or protecting equipment from scale where hardness is a real issue. For any specific contaminant, the system must be certified for that contaminant under the relevant NSF/ANSI standard, so always check the exact model's listing.

How the free in-home test works

1. Call, text or WhatsApp Jorge at (305) 793-5974 to schedule.
2. He tests water from your tap at home.
3. He explains what each result means for taste, odor and scale in your home.
4. He recommends a system only if it fits, with no obligation.

More on home water testing in Fort Lauderdale and how it works.

Fort Lauderdale pages and the wider area

• Whole-home water filtration in Fort Lauderdale
• Water softeners in Fort Lauderdale
• Under-sink reverse osmosis in Fort Lauderdale
• What drives water filtration cost in Fort Lauderdale
• Home water testing in Fort Lauderdale

Jorge serves Fort Lauderdale and the rest of Broward County, plus Palm Beach and Miami-Dade, including Miami, Hialeah and Doral.

Updated 2026-10-17 · Living Waters · Jorge Canela, Water Quality Specialist