Water Treatment in Stuart

How the City of Stuart Treats Its Water

The City's 2025 Water Quality Report and its drinking water page describe a plant that does more than most small Florida utilities:

• Source: 23 production wells in the Surficial Aquifer and one Floridan Aquifer well. The plant can treat 6.0 million gallons per day and produced about 2.99 million gallons per day in 2025.
• Treatment train: 4 ion exchange vessels (the resin step that removes regulated PFAS), 4 air-stripping towers, 3 solids contact units for lime softening, filtration, 2 reverse osmosis trains, then chloramine disinfection. Water is stored in three 1-million-gallon tanks.
• Corrosion control: the City runs a slightly positive Langelier Index, which means the water is meant to deposit a thin calcium carbonate layer that protects water mains and home plumbing. It also adds sodium hexametaphosphate to keep lead and copper from leaching out of pipes and fittings.
• Source protection: the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's 2025 assessment found 75 potential contamination sources near the City's wells, all rated low to moderate susceptibility.

The corrosion-control detail matters if you are thinking about a softener. Water that is designed to leave a light mineral film in pipes will also leave it on shower glass and fixtures. Whether that is enough to justify a softener depends on what your tap actually measures, which is why we test first.

City of Stuart 2025 Water Quality Numbers and What They Mean

The City's water met all federal and state standards in 2025. These are the results that shape a treatment plan for a City customer:

• Chloramine: 3.1 ppm, with samples between 2.9 and 3.1 ppm. That is steady and close to the 4 ppm limit, and it is the chemical taste and smell most people notice. Catalytic carbon removes it. Standard pitcher filters do not do it well.
• Disinfection by-products: total trihalomethanes (TTHM) 48.7 ppb (range 45.1 to 48.7) and haloacetic acids (HAA5) 27.8 ppb (23.7 to 27.8). The limits are 80 and 60 ppb. Carbon and reverse osmosis both reduce them.
• Short-chain PFAS: in the EPA's 2025 unregulated contaminant testing (UCMR 5), the City detected PFBA at 3.4 parts per trillion, PFPeA at 3.2 ppt and the fluorotelomer 6:2 FTS at 1.8 ppt. These are not regulated yet. The City says short-chain PFAS were first found in two wells in October 2023, those wells were taken out of service, and the compounds were able to pass through the existing treatment resin. A pilot using specialized media is scheduled to be installed at the plant in 2026.
• Sodium: 37.4 ppm. Nitrate: 0.19 ppm (limit 10). Fluoride: 0.14 ppm, well below the 0.7 ppm level used for dental benefit. Dichloromethane: 1.3 ppb against a 5 ppb limit.
• Lead and copper at City taps: 90th-percentile lead 1.2 ppb (not detected up to 3.2 ppb), with no sites over the 15 ppb action level. Copper 0.066 ppm against a 1.3 ppm action level. The City publishes its service line inventory on a public map dashboard.

For City customers who want PFAS out of drinking water now rather than after the pilot, an under-sink reverse osmosis system is the practical choice. Short-chain PFAS are the ones that slip through carbon and standard resin most easily, and RO membranes reject a much wider range of them. Look for a system certified to NSF/ANSI 58 and ask what PFAS reduction claims it carries.

Martin County Utilities Water in Stuart, Sewall's Point and Jensen Beach

Martin County Utilities runs two connected plants. Tropical Farms, off Kanner Highway west of the Turnpike, treats up to 10.7 million gallons per day: 9.2 MGD of brackish Floridan Aquifer water by reverse osmosis and 1.5 MGD of shallow well water by iron treatment filtration. The North plant in Jensen Beach treats up to 8.8 MGD: 5.5 MGD by RO and 3.3 MGD of shallow well water by deep-bed filtration. RO water is nearly mineral-free, so the County blends in the filtered shallow water to add alkalinity and hardness back, then strips out hydrogen sulfide gas and disinfects.

The County's 2025 report shows:

• Chloramine: 3.5 ppm running annual average, with samples from 0.6 to 4.8 ppm. More variable than City water, so taste can change from week to week.
• Disinfection by-products: TTHM 56.1 ppb at the highest-reading location (samples 8.1 to 57.1) and HAA5 36.7 ppb. Both are within limits but higher than the City's 2025 results, which makes whole-home carbon worth more on County water.
• PFAS and other unregulated contaminants: every UCMR 5 sample in 2025 was below the minimum reporting level.
• Sodium: 46.6 ppm, partly from the brackish Floridan source. Fluoride: 0.26 ppm.
• Lead and copper: the most recent tap sampling (August 2023) put lead at 4.0 ppb at the 90th percentile and copper at 0.11 ppm, with no sites over the action levels.

The County won the American Water Works Association Region 8 best-tasting water award in 2025, and in our experience most County customers are happy with the taste once chloramine is removed. The usual County setup is whole-home catalytic carbon, with kitchen RO for anyone watching sodium. See our Jensen Beach page for the North plant area.

Private Wells in Palm City and Unincorporated Martin County

The County's own treatment tells you what untreated local groundwater is like. Its shallow wells need iron treatment filtration, and the blended water has to be degasified to remove hydrogen sulfide. A private well drawing from the same shallow aquifer gets none of that treatment, so iron staining, a rotten-egg smell and bacteria are the issues we test for first on Martin County wells.

1. Test before buying equipment: iron, hydrogen sulfide, pH, hardness, tannins and a bacteria test. Results decide the order of the treatment train.
2. Iron and sulfur: an air-injection oxidizing filter such as our AirGuard system handles both without chemicals in most homes.
3. Hardness: a softener after the iron filter, sized to the measured hardness so it is not loaded with iron.
4. Bacteria: UV disinfection when the bacteria test or the well's condition calls for it, especially on older wells near septic systems.

Martin County has been converting neighborhoods from septic to sewer. Its 2025 report counts 22 projects completed since 2019 and 14 more planned through 2031. If your area is getting sewer or water mains, ask the County whether a water connection is offered, because that changes the right equipment. Read more about well water filtration and iron filtration.

Softener, Carbon or RO? A Stuart Decision Guide

• City of Stuart customers: whole-home catalytic carbon for chloramine and by-products, plus under-sink reverse osmosis if PFAS is a concern. Add a water softener only if your measured hardness and the spotting on your fixtures justify it.
• Martin County Utilities customers: whole-home carbon first, because by-product levels are higher. Kitchen RO for sodium and drinking water. Softener decisions again depend on your tap test, since the County's blend changes hardness.
• Private wells: iron and sulfur treatment, then softening, then UV if needed, with RO at the kitchen sink.
• Condos and waterfront homes along the St. Lucie River and Hutchinson Island: under-sink RO works where association rules or space rule out whole-home equipment, and we use corrosion-resistant housings and fittings for equipment exposed to salt air.

Water use matters too. The City cut average use from 219 to 147 gallons per person per day and limits lawn irrigation to two days a week. We install softeners that regenerate on metered demand, not a timer, and RO systems that waste less water. Book a free water test and we will give you the measured numbers in writing before recommending anything.