Your city is also your water company
The City of North Miami Beach has owned and operated the Norwood Water Treatment Plant for more than 70 years, according to NMB Water's 2025 Water Quality Report. The utility, now branded NMB Water, is advised by a seven-member Public Utilities Commission that normally meets at 6 p.m. on the second Wednesday of each month at City Hall, 17011 NE 19th Avenue.
NMB Water is a regional utility. Besides North Miami Beach it serves Miami Gardens, Aventura, Sunny Isles Beach, Golden Beach and parts of unincorporated Miami-Dade, roughly 180,000 people in all. It also handles sewer collection, including grinder and lift stations. For anything about your service, its customer line is staffed 24/7 at 305-948-2960.
One wrinkle: Miami-Dade WASD's 2024 Water Quality Report says an area generally bounded by NE 163rd and NE 181st Streets, between NE 6th and NE 15th Avenues, receives water treated by North Miami Beach and delivered through WASD's lines. If your bill comes from Miami-Dade, that may describe your street.
Two aquifers, three treatment trains
| Source | Depth (per NMB Water) | Treatment |
|---|---|---|
| Biscayne Aquifer, porous limestone recharged by rain | About 10 to 200 feet | Lime softening and/or nanofiltration |
| Floridan Aquifer, brackish (fresh and salt water mixed) | About 1,250 feet | Reverse osmosis |
Production wells range from 60 to 1,250 feet deep, with a permitted capacity of up to 41 million gallons per day. The treated streams are blended and disinfected before they leave Norwood. NMB says it plans to retire lime softening and has added a new 5-million-gallon storage tank and a new high service pump station at the plant.
Because part of the supply is already reverse osmosis or nanofiltration water, North Miami Beach's tap water is not the same as what a Miami-Dade WASD customer a few miles away receives. That is one reason Jorge tests at your faucet before suggesting anything.
Chloramine: the taste most people notice
NMB Water's 2025 report lists chloramine, chlorine combined with ammonia, as the disinfectant it monitors in the distribution system, within the regulatory maximum of 4 ppm. Chloramine lasts longer in the pipes than plain chlorine, and it is behind the faint pool-like taste and smell some residents notice. NMB's own website adds a less obvious effect: chloramine can make some rubber o-rings and gaskets in plumbing fixtures break down faster than normal.
Once a year the Norwood plant switches temporarily to free chlorine while crews flush hydrants, so expect a stronger chlorine smell for a couple of weeks. Details on the chloramine filter page.
Fluoride, PFAS and lead lines
- Fluoride: NMB Water stopped adding fluoride on June 9, 2025, following Florida's SB 700, which took effect July 1, 2025. Trace natural fluoride remains. See fluoride filters.
- PFAS: the 2025 report includes a PFAS monitoring table, says NMB voluntarily monitored 29 PFAS, and states its reverse osmosis and nanofiltration processes reduce PFAS. See PFAS filters.
- Lead: NMB's 2025 service line inventory found no lead service lines in the city's water system. Plumbing inside a home is a separate matter, which is why the report suggests filters certified for lead if you have concerns.
- Testing volume: NMB reports more than 2,580 samples and 66,000 tests in its state-certified laboratory in 2025.
What usually fits a North Miami Beach home
- Single-family house: a whole-home city water system for chloramine at every tap, often paired with under-sink alkaline RO in the kitchen.
- Condo or apartment: under-sink RO, which stays inside your unit; ask the association or owner before any plumbing work.
- Restaurant, salon, laundry or gym: an ion-exchange softening plant where scale costs money, sized from a hardness test. See water softeners.
- Home with an irrigation or private well: treatment configured from the well's own test. See well water.
Every North Miami Beach water topic
Systems: whole-home filtration, water softeners, under-sink RO, best drinking water system, softener vs. filter.
Problems: chlorine and chloramine, rotten-egg smell, orange and rust stains, hard water spots, dry skin after showering, PFAS, fluoride, well water.
Costs: filtration, reverse osmosis, softeners. Testing: home water testing.
Nearby: Aventura, Miami Gardens and Sunny Isles Beach, all served by NMB Water too.
Book a free in-home test
Call, text or WhatsApp Jorge at (305) 793-5974. He tests at your tap, explains the results in plain words, and if your water does not need a system he will tell you. If something fits, you get an itemized quote. Living Water offers financing through its financing partners; you apply with a credit application, and a co-applicant can apply with you.
Tip: NMB publishes its Water Quality Report in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole. Have this year's copy handy and Jorge will walk you through the lines that matter for your home.
https://www.citynmb.com/DocumentCenter/View/14691/2025-CCR-ENGLISH-web-version
https://www.citynmb.com/1683/About-NMB-Water
https://www.citynmb.com/904/Source
https://www.citynmb.com/906/Fluoride
https://www.citynmb.com/905/Water-Quality-Reports
https://www.citynmb.com/913/Black-Particles
https://www.miamidade.gov/water/library/reports/water-quality-2024.pdf
Updated 2026-10-17 · Living Waters · Jorge Canela, Water Quality Specialist