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Water Treatment
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Tequesta, FL

Tequesta runs its own water plant, blending reverse osmosis–treated water from deep Floridan Aquifer wells with filtered water from shallow wells. What comes out of the tap is only moderately hard, so the bigger questions here are PFAS, chloramine taste and the plumbing in older homes. We test your water before we recommend anything.

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100–120 mg/L Average
Village Hardness
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5yr Control Valve
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Tequesta isn't on Jupiter's water system, and its PFAS numbers are worth knowing. The Village tested its treated water in August 2025 and found 8.7 parts per trillion of PFOS and 3.5 ppt of PFOA. EPA set a 4 ppt limit for each in 2024, with compliance due in 2029, so the PFOS result is not a violation today. The Village says it is evaluating treatment options. If you'd rather not wait, a reverse osmosis system at the kitchen sink, which reduces PFAS, is the direct fix at home.

Tequesta is a village of 6,158 people (2020 census) at the northern edge of Palm Beach County, where the Loxahatchee River widens toward the Jupiter Inlet. It was incorporated in 1957 around the Tequesta Country Club, and many of its homes date from the decades that followed: single-family houses along Country Club Drive, river and canal lots off Riverside Drive, with newer homes and condos mixed in. A lot of homes back onto water, so pools, boats, docks and outdoor showers are part of everyday life.

Water is one thing people get wrong about the village. Jupiter sits right across the river, but Tequesta has its own Water Utilities Department and its own treatment plant. That plant draws from two aquifers. Brackish water from deep Floridan wells goes through reverse osmosis, and water from shallow surficial wells is filtered, then the two are blended and disinfected with chloramine. The Village's utility also serves customers outside its limits, including Jupiter Inlet Colony and some unincorporated parts of Palm Beach and Martin counties.

What the Village of Tequesta Reports About Your Water

From the Village's water quality page and 2024 annual report, with independent EWG Tap Water Database findings labeled as such
🟠 Above the 2029 Federal Limit

PFOS & PFOA (PFAS)

The Village's August 2025 test of finished water found PFOS at 8.7 ppt and PFOA at 3.5 ppt. EPA's limit for each is 4 ppt, and utilities have until 2029 to meet it. The shallow surficial wells are the part of the supply most exposed to PFAS, and the Village is evaluating treatment and operating changes to bring levels down.

Fix: Certified RO at the Kitchen Tap
🟠 EWG Finding · No Federal Limit

6:2 FTSA

EWG's database also lists 6:2 fluorotelomer sulfonic acid, a less familiar PFAS compound, for the Tequesta water plant at a level above its 1 ppt health guideline. There is no federal limit for it. It's tied to fluorotelomer chemistry used in some firefighting foams and coatings, and the same RO system that handles PFOS and PFOA is the usual home option.

Fix: Reverse Osmosis
🔵 Regulated · Under Federal Limits

Disinfection Byproducts

The Village's 2024 report lists haloacetic acids (HAA5) at up to 37 ppb against a 60 ppb federal limit, and total trihalomethanes in the mid-30s ppb against an 80 ppb limit. EWG's health guidelines are far stricter. Because these compounds also reach you as shower steam, whole-house catalytic carbon is the usual way to reduce them.

Fix: Catalytic Carbon Filter
🔵 Taste, Odor & Pets

Chloramine

Tequesta disinfects with monochloramine, a mix of chlorine and ammonia that holds up well in groundwater with natural organic matter. Once a year the Village switches to free chlorine to flush the pipes, and the water can smell stronger for a while. Ordinary carbon does little against chloramine. Catalytic carbon is made for it, and it protects softener resin too.

Fix: Catalytic Carbon Filter
🟡 Depends on Your House

Lead (Pre-1986 Plumbing)

The Village's wells aren't where lead comes from. In older homes, it comes from solder joints and brass fittings installed before the 1986 federal lead-solder ban. Much of Tequesta was built well before then, so a first-draw sample from the kitchen tap is worth taking. We arrange certified lab testing at no charge.

Fix: Under-Sink RO or NSF-53 Filter
🟡 Moderate · Varies by Blend

Hardness — About 6–7 GPG

The Village reports average hardness of 100–120 mg/L, roughly 6 to 7 grains per gallon. That's far softer than much of Palm Beach County, because RO-treated Floridan water dilutes the harder shallow-well water. It can still leave spots on glass, boat hulls and pool tile, and your own reading can differ from the average.

Fix: Softener, If Your Test Supports It

Tequesta Hardness Against the Village's Own Scale

Village "hard" threshold200 mg/L · about 11.7 GPG
USGS "very hard" begins180 mg/L · about 10.5 GPG
Tequesta average ← Village figure100–120 mg/L · about 6–7 GPG
Village "soft" threshold100 mg/L · about 5.8 GPG
The Village describes water at or below 100 mg/L as soft and 200 mg/L or more as hard, which puts its average in the moderate band. One grain per gallon equals about 17.1 mg/L. Because the plant blends two very different sources, the number at your tap can shift, so we measure it before suggesting a softener.

Treatment Options for Tequesta Homes and Waterfront Properties

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Water Softener Installation

For moderate water like Tequesta's, a softener is a choice, not a given. When spotting, scale or a long-lived water heater matters to you, we size the unit to your measured hardness and household. Fleck and Clack valves, 10% crosslink resin and a 5-year valve warranty.

From $1,495
🏠

Whole-House Carbon Filtration

Catalytic carbon at the main line, designed to reduce chloramine taste and odor plus TTHMs and HAAs at every faucet and shower. If you add a softener later, the carbon goes first and protects its resin.

From $1,495
🔬

Reverse Osmosis Systems

Under-sink RO for drinking and cooking water, and the most direct answer to Tequesta's PFOS and PFOA results. NSF/ANSI-certified, and it reduces PFAS, lead, chromium-6 and other dissolved contaminants at one tap, with no more bottled water to carry home.

From $799
💎

Complete 3-Stage System

Catalytic carbon for the whole house, a softener for spotting and scale, and RO at the kitchen sink. Each stage does a separate job, which is why we only include the softener when your test calls for it. How our purification systems are put together.

From $3,200
🔧

Repairs & Maintenance

We work on all brands, not only systems we installed. Valve and resin repairs, filter and RO cartridge changes, and salt delivery throughout Tequesta (33469).

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Financing Available

Monthly payment plans on every system type, so you can buy what your water test points to instead of the cheapest option. We work with most credit profiles.

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Installed Prices for Tequesta Homes

Entry Level

Softener Only

$1,495
to $2,500 installed
  • Capacity set by your test
  • Fewer spots on glass & fixtures
  • Less scale in the water heater
  • 5-yr valve / 10-yr tank warranty
Most Popular

Carbon + Softener + RO

$3,200
to $5,500 installed
  • Whole-house catalytic carbon
  • Softener matched to your reading
  • Under-sink RO for drinking water
  • Reduces PFAS & lead at the tap
  • Takes out chloramine taste & smell
Drinking Water

Under-Sink RO Only

$799
to $1,200 installed
  • NSF-certified 5-stage system
  • Reduces PFAS from your drinking water
  • Reduces lead & chromium-6
  • Ends the bottled-water habit
🧪
Free Water TestAt your tap, not a utility average
⚡
Same-Day InstallThroughout Tequesta & Jupiter
🛡️
5-Year WarrantyValve + 10yr tanks
💰
FinancingFlexible monthly plans
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Licensed & InsuredPalm Beach County certified
Boat owners and riverfront homes: moderately hard water still dries to a white film on hulls, dock hardware, sliding doors and pool tile, especially in the sun. Before you decide a softener will fix it, check how your outdoor spigots are plumbed. Hose bibs are often connected ahead of the softener, so the water you rinse the boat with may never pass through it. We'll look at that during the test and tell you which lines a softener would actually reach.

How Tequesta Makes Its Water

Tequesta has treated its own water for decades, and the plant has changed as the source water has. In the early 1980s, salt water was moving into the shallow aquifer the Village relied on, and the plant was rebuilt around filters for those surficial wells. In 2000 the Village added a reverse osmosis plant fed by brackish water from much deeper Floridan Aquifer wells, raising total capacity above 5 million gallons a day.

Today the two sources are blended. Reverse osmosis strips the salt and most of the minerals from the Floridan water, so it comes out very soft. The surficial water carries more calcium, more natural organic matter and, as the 2025 tests show, more exposure to PFAS. Mixing them is why Tequesta's hardness lands around 100–120 mg/L instead of the much harder water found elsewhere in the county. It also means the blend can shift with how the plant is run, so a single average doesn't describe every day or every street.

Chloramine keeps the water disinfected on its way through the pipes. The Village does not add fluoride; the small amount that occurs naturally averages about 0.03 mg/L. Every year it briefly switches to free chlorine to flush the system, which is the usual explanation when residents notice a stronger chlorine smell for a few weeks.

The Village says its water meets all currently enforceable state and federal standards. You can read its annual water quality report and the latest PFAS results on its water quality page.

PFAS in Tequesta: What the 2025 Results Mean Before 2029

PFAS are the main reason Tequesta homeowners call us. The Village's August 2025 sample of treated water came in at 8.7 ppt for PFOS, about twice the 4 ppt limit EPA set in 2024, and 3.5 ppt for PFOA, just under it. Utilities have until 2029 to comply, and EPA has said it may revisit that date. So the water isn't in violation today, but it isn't yet where the federal rule says it needs to be.

The Village is working on it, and plant-level fixes for PFAS take years to design, fund and build. In the meantime you can deal with the water you drink yourself. An under-sink reverse osmosis system, which reduces PFAS, treats drinking and cooking water at one faucet, which is where most PFAS exposure from tap water comes from. Drinking and cooking are the main way PFAS in tap water reach people, so that's where most families focus treatment.

One thing that doesn't help with PFAS is a water softener. Softening swaps calcium and magnesium for sodium; it isn't designed to remove PFAS. Our guide to PFAS in South Florida water covers what the federal rules do and don't require.

From Free Test to Installed System in Tequesta

The first visit is a free water test in your home, and it takes about 20 minutes. We measure hardness, chloramine, iron, pH and total dissolved solids at your kitchen tap. If your house was built before 1986, we also take a first-draw lead sample and send it to a certified lab at no charge. PFAS need a specialized lab method, so for those we rely on the Village's published results and talk you through them.

With moderate hardness, the recommendation in Tequesta often starts at the kitchen sink rather than the garage. A household worried about PFAS may only need RO. If chloramine smell is the complaint, whole-house catalytic carbon is the fix. A softener makes sense when you're fighting spots on glass and fixtures or want to protect a new water heater, and our article on whether you need a softener lays out the trade-offs.

Most standard systems are installed the same day. We use Fleck and Clack control valves, the same kind found in commercial water treatment, with 5-year valve and 10-year tank warranties and 10% crosslink resin that holds up to chloraminated water. After that, you call our local team directly for filter changes, salt delivery or service.

Neighborhoods and ZIP Codes Around Tequesta

Tequesta Village

  • Country Club Drive corridor
  • Riverside Drive (waterfront)
  • Loxahatchee River waterfront
  • Old Tequesta neighborhoods
  • Jupiter Inlet Colony (adjacent)

Across the River in Jupiter

  • Jupiter Inlet area
  • Admirals Cove
  • Pennock Point
  • Center Street corridor
  • Jupiter Beach

Down the Coast

  • Juno Beach
  • North Palm Beach

Southern Martin County

  • Hobe Sound
  • Stuart
  • Jensen Beach
  • Palm City
ZIP codes served: 33469 (Tequesta & Jupiter Inlet Colony) · 33458 · 33477 (Jupiter) · 33455 (Hobe Sound) and surrounding northern Palm Beach and southern Martin counties. See our full list of service areas.

Water Treatment Service Area in Tequesta

Questions Tequesta Homeowners Ask About Their Water

Its own. The Village of Tequesta Water Utilities Department runs a treatment plant that blends reverse osmosis–treated Floridan Aquifer water with filtered surficial-well water. It serves the village, Jupiter Inlet Colony and some unincorporated areas of Palm Beach and Martin counties. Most of Jupiter is on the Town of Jupiter's separate utility. If you're unsure which one serves your address, the name on your water bill settles it.

Finished water sampled in August 2025 had 8.7 ppt of PFOS and 3.5 ppt of PFOA. EPA's 2024 rule sets a 4 ppt limit for each, with compliance required by 2029, so PFOS is above the coming limit and PFOA is just below it. The Village states that its water meets all currently enforceable standards and that it is evaluating treatment and operational options to reduce PFAS.

That's a personal call, but it's the most common reason Tequesta families call us. If you'd like lower PFAS now rather than after 2029, an under-sink RO system reduces PFAS in the water you drink and cook with. It's a single-tap install that fits under most kitchen sinks, and it costs $799 to $1,200 installed.

Not automatically. The Village's average of 100–120 mg/L works out to about 6–7 grains per gallon. Plenty of homes live with that comfortably. Others still get spots on shower glass, a crust on faucet aerators, or want to protect a tankless or new tank water heater. A softener makes sense when your measured hardness and those everyday annoyances justify it, and we'll tell you honestly if they don't.

Most of the year Tequesta disinfects with chloramine. Once a year the Village temporarily switches to free chlorine to flush its distribution pipes, and during that stretch the chlorine taste and smell can be more noticeable. It's routine maintenance. If chlorine or chloramine taste bothers you year-round, whole-house catalytic carbon reduces it at every tap. Our article on chlorine and chloramine in Florida tap water explains the difference.

No. The Village doesn't fluoridate. The fluoride that occurs naturally in its water averages about 0.03 mg/L, well below the 4.0 mg/L federal maximum and too low to offer dental benefit, so the Village suggests asking your dentist about supplements. An RO system lowers fluoride further, which matters only if you were counting on it.

Not straight from the tap. Chloramine is harmful to fish and doesn't gas off the way plain chlorine does if you let water sit. Use a water conditioner that names both chlorine and chloramines on the label, as the Village itself advises. A whole-house catalytic carbon filter also reduces chloramine, but test your tank water before relying on it.

Any home plumbed before 1986, when the federal ban on lead solder took effect. That covers a large share of the village's older housing, including homes with remodeled kitchens, since the supply lines behind the walls may be original. Lead leaches into water that sits in the pipes overnight, so the test uses the first water drawn in the morning. We arrange a certified lab test at no charge. Our lead guide for South Florida homeowners covers what the results mean.

The Village's 2024 annual report lists haloacetic acids (HAA5) at up to 37 ppb and total trihalomethanes in the mid-30s ppb. Both are under their federal limits of 60 and 80 ppb. EWG's health guidelines for these compounds are far lower, and EWG's database also lists HAA and TTHM results above its guidelines for the Tequesta system. Whole-house catalytic carbon is designed to reduce them, including in shower steam.

6:2 FTSA (6:2 fluorotelomer sulfonic acid) is a PFAS compound tied to fluorotelomer chemistry used in some firefighting foams and coatings. EWG's database lists it for the Tequesta plant above EWG's 1 ppt health guideline; there is no federal limit for it. EWG also lists hexavalent chromium above its 0.02 ppb guideline. There's no federal limit for chromium-6 alone; EPA regulates total chromium at 100 ppb. Our under-sink RO systems reduce both PFAS and chromium-6 at the kitchen tap.

It depends on the test, but the order is usually different from harder-water towns. RO at the kitchen sink comes first for PFAS and, in older homes, lead. Whole-house catalytic carbon comes next if chloramine taste or byproducts bother you. A water softener is added when your hardness reading and spotting justify it. All three together run $3,200 to $5,500 installed.

Under-sink RO is $799 to $1,200 installed. A softener is $1,495 to $2,500, depending on capacity. Whole-house catalytic carbon starts at $1,495, and the carbon, softener and RO package is $3,200 to $5,500. We give you a written quote after the free water test, and financing is available on every system.

Usually not. The Town of Jupiter runs a larger plant that uses nanofiltration and reverse osmosis, while Tequesta blends its own RO-treated Floridan water with filtered shallow-well water. The two utilities publish separate reports with separate hardness, PFAS and byproduct results. Jupiter Inlet Colony, just south of the village, is on Tequesta's system. Check your bill, then compare against that utility's own report.

Only if those taps are on the softened line. In many homes the hose bibs and outdoor showers branch off before the softener, so they deliver the same 6–7 grain water as the street. During the test we trace which fixtures a softener would reach. If spotless boat rinsing is the main goal, we'll talk through whether re-routing a line makes sense.

We offer same-day installation in Tequesta, Jupiter, Jupiter Inlet Colony, Hobe Sound and North Palm Beach. A softener or whole-house carbon filter typically takes 2–4 hours. Plan on 4–6 hours for a full three-stage system. Call 561-352-9989 and we'll confirm a time.

Softeners: check the salt each month, clean the brine tank and test the softened water once a year, have the control valve serviced every 5–7 years, and expect 10% crosslink resin to last 10–12 years. Carbon media and RO filters and membranes are replaced on a schedule we set from your water use. We deliver salt throughout 33469 and offer annual service plans.

Find Out What's in Your Tequesta Tap

About 20 minutes at your kitchen sink. We measure hardness, chloramine, pH and TDS, add a first-draw lead sample for pre-1986 homes, and walk you through the Village's PFAS results. Then you'll know which system, if any, your water needs.

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