Water Filtration & Treatment in South Miami

Who supplies South Miami's water

The City of South Miami runs a Public Works & Engineering Department, but it does not produce drinking water. Water comes straight from Miami-Dade WASD. WASD's 2025 annual report lists 15 cities that buy water from it wholesale and resell it through their own pipes; South Miami is not one of them, which means your account and bill are with the county directly.

The Alexander Orr plant and SW 8 Street

WASD's 2025 Water Quality Report says the Alexander Orr, Jr. plant serves customers who live south of SW 8 Street to approximately SW 264 Street. South Miami's original 1926 boundaries ran from Bird Road down to Kendall Drive, so the whole city sits inside that band.

At Orr, groundwater from the shallow Biscayne Aquifer receives lime treatment to reduce hardness, then it is disinfected and filtered. All three of WASD's regional plants feed one shared distribution system, so the north-south split is a general rule, not a wall. Unlike the Hialeah and Preston plants that serve the north side of the county, Orr does not list air stripping as part of its process.

Chloramine, fluoride and the 2025 report

• Disinfectant: WASD combines chlorine with ammonia to form chloramine. The 2025 report lists a running annual average of 2.5 ppm for the main system, against a limit of 4. About once a year WASD switches to free chlorine for roughly two weeks, and the smell can change. See chloramine filters in South Miami.
• Fluoride: the Orr, Preston and Hialeah plants stopped adding fluoride as of June 6, 2025. Natural fluoride since then has run about 0.1 to 0.3 ppm. See fluoride filters.
• PFAS: the report includes a separate PFAS table and says initial compliance monitoring under the new federal rules is underway. See PFAS filters.
• Sodium: 33 ppm at the high end of the main-system range.

A city still moving off septic

South Miami's own Septic-to-Sewer page says large portions of the community still rely on septic systems. The city adopted a Septic-to-Sewer Master Plan in 2016 that divides South Miami into 11 project areas (A through K). Work is active in Area K, with Phase II scheduled to finish by the end of 2028; the other areas have no funded construction yet.

That matters for water treatment. A water softener discharges brine when it regenerates, and where that water goes on a septic property is a real question. Jorge asks whether your home is on septic or sewer before he recommends any equipment that discharges water.

Older homes, wells and what you see at the tap

South Miami grew from the pioneer settlement of Larkins, and many streets mix early and mid-century houses with newer builds. Plumbing age varies widely, and old lines, past repairs and water heater condition all change what comes out of a faucet even though the county water feeding each house is the same.

Some yards are watered from a shallow irrigation well rather than the county line. Untreated well water is a common source of orange stains on walls and walks and of sulfur smells around sprinklers.

What fits a South Miami home

• House on county water: a whole-home city water system for chloramine at every tap, often with under-sink alkaline RO in the kitchen.
• Apartment or condo near Sunset Drive or US-1: under-sink RO, which stays inside the unit.
• Restaurant, gym, salon or office: an ion-exchange softening plant where scale hurts equipment, after testing. See water softeners in South Miami.
• Private well: a well water system configured from the well's test.

Every South Miami topic, and how to book

Systems: whole-home filtration, water softeners, under-sink RO, best drinking water system, softener vs. filter.

Problems: chlorine and chloramine, rotten-egg smell, orange stains, hard water spots, dry skin after showering, PFAS, fluoride, well water.

Costs: filtration, reverse osmosis, softener. Testing: home water testing.

Call, text or WhatsApp Jorge at (305) 793-5974. Living Water offers financing through its financing partners; you apply with a credit application, and a co-applicant can apply with you.

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