Water Treatment
Services in
Plantation, FL

Each of the two plants has eight wells, 80 to 110 feet deep, set in City parks, and each can produce up to 12 million gallons a day; average demand in 2025 was about 11 million. The City's water treatment page describes the steps: a scale inhibitor and 5-micron cartridge filters, then two-stage arrays of fiberglass pressure tubes holding the membranes. The membranes hold back calcium and magnesium, the tea-colored humic material, and bacteria and viruses. The concentrate they reject goes down a disposal well into the Boulder Zone, about 2,700 feet below the aquifer the wells draw from.

After the membranes, the water falls over plastic media that strip out hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide, which is why the tap water doesn't carry the sulfur smell raw Biscayne water often has. The state's 2025 source water assessment counted 16 potential contamination sources near the wells, mostly rated low to moderate and one high. Those ratings describe nearby activity, not test results.

The setup is different from next door. Until September 2026 much of Fort Lauderdale's water came from a lime-softening plant, which left more hardness and the yellow tint behind; both plants here have been membrane plants since 1998. Plantation is its own city, incorporated in 1953, and its utility, lab and bills are separate from Fort Lauderdale's. Billing questions go to customer service at 954-797-2290.

Usually not. The City's 2025 report calls its process "membrane softening", and the plant page says the membranes reject the components of hardness. The report doesn't print a hardness number, so we measure it at your sink. For comparison, the U.S. Geological Survey's sampling of 189 Biscayne Aquifer wells put typical untreated water at about 14 grains per gallon. That raw water is what leaves crust on shower glass in towns on well water or older lime-softening plants.

Plenty of houses here came with a softener anyway, often installed decades ago or by a seller. If the test shows your City water is already soft, a working softener adds little except salt bills, and we can service it, change its settings or bypass it. A softener still earns its place where water comes from a private well, which is the situation covered in the Plantation Acres section below. When one is needed, our softener installation page explains sizing and valve options.

Membranes remove most of the organic matter that byproducts form from, which is why trihalomethanes here peaked at just 3.50 ppb in 2025. Haloacetic acids ranged much more widely, from 1.13 ppb at one sampling site to 26.49 ppb at another. They keep forming as water sits in the mains, so homes at the far end of a long run, or on a dead-end street, tend to see more than homes near a plant. The City doesn't give a reason; water age is the usual one.

Once a year the Utilities Department switches the system from chloramine to free chlorine for about two weeks to clean the pipes; in 2026 it ran from August 23 to September 6. For those two weeks the smell turns sharper, closer to household bleach, and crews flush hydrants. The City says the water stays safe to drink and bathe in, and it tells dialysis patients to check with their doctor. Aquarium owners should treat for chlorine as well as chloramine.

Catalytic carbon installed where the line enters the house handles all of it: chloramine most of the year, plain chlorine during the switch, and a good part of the haloacetic acids, for showers and laundry as well as drinking water. Ordinary carbon in a pitcher does little for chloramine. Our whole-house water filtration page lists the tank sizes and media we use.

PFAS shows up in Biscayne Aquifer wells across Broward, so the City's 2024 results stand out: in two rounds at both plants, none of the 29 PFAS EPA tested for reached the reporting limit. The City points to nanofiltration for that. It also cites EPA's estimate that about 80% of PFAS exposure comes from sources other than drinking water, such as food, dust and household products.

The figure we'd watch is chlorate. EPA's 2013 samples ran from 166 to 628 ppb, higher in August than in February, and there's no newer public data or federal limit to compare it with. If you want drinking water with less of it, reverse osmosis at the kitchen sink is designed to reduce chlorate along with sodium and other dissolved salts. Chromium-6, which the City never detected in that 2013 round, isn't a reason to buy anything here.

Plantation Acres, the roughly 2,000 acres between Hiatus and Flamingo Roads, was annexed in 1973 and is designated a special rural district. Most lots are an acre or larger, and many keep horses. The City's mains reach it: one of EPA's 2013 sample points was on West Broward Boulevard out there, and the Plantation Acres Homeowners Association passes along the City's chlorination notices. Parts of the area still use septic tanks for wastewater, which is a separate question from where the drinking water comes from.

Some older properties do have a private well, for the house or just for irrigation and the barn. Well water skips the membranes, so it arrives as raw Biscayne water: hard (around 14 grains per gallon on average), often with iron (USGS found more than half of the Biscayne wells it sampled above 0.3 ppm) and sometimes a sulfur smell. It also has no disinfectant, and no utility tests it for you. The Florida Department of Health advises testing a private well for bacteria at least once a year.

For a well, we start with a full test, then size iron removal, a softener, UV and RO to the results. An iron filter and softener typically runs $2,800–$4,500 installed, a full six-stage system $4,000–$7,000, and a setup covering the house and barn lines $4,500–$8,500. Homes in Southwest Ranches, where most homes are on wells, deal with the same raw water.

Service lines are clear. For EPA's lead rule, the City reviewed records, inspected lines and had its consulting engineers build a prediction model (95% accurate on field-checked lines). It found no lead or galvanized service lines, on the City's side or yours. The July 2025 sampling backs that up, with a 90th-percentile lead result of 1.0 ppb.

House plumbing is the open question. The first homes went up on East Acre Drive in 1947, sold as "a full acre with every home", and the city grew from 4,772 people in 1960 to 48,653 in 1980. So a large share of houses, from the original east side to the early Jacaranda streets west of University Drive, were plumbed before lead solder was banned in 1986. For a house from those decades, the free lab lead test uses the first water drawn from the kitchen tap after a night unused. A high result is handled with RO, or a filter certified for lead, at that faucet.

Condos and townhouses. The city has plenty of both. Whole-house equipment only works where one pipe supplies just your unit, and the board has to sign off. RO under the sink avoids both problems.

We open every visit by asking one thing: City water or a well? The free water test then runs about 20 minutes at the sink, covering hardness, chloramine, dissolved solids, pH and iron, and we put the results next to the City's figures. A well gets the extra tests it needs. Lead goes to a certified lab, and the lead test is free.

Installs are usually same-day. One tank takes 2–4 hours; a three-part system takes 4–6. Fleck and Clack valves are covered for 5 years and the tanks for 10. Afterward the same local team handles filter and cartridge replacement and, for well homes with a softener, salt delivery. When you call, you reach our own staff.