Water Treatment in Westlake

Westlake's 2025 Water Quality Report: What the Numbers Mean for Your Filter

SID's 2025 Water Quality Report says the water met all federal, state and local standards. These are the figures that decide what a Westlake home actually needs:

• Chloramine: 3.04 ppm highest running annual average, with individual samples from 0.07 to 4.53 ppm. The 4 ppm limit applies to the annual average. Chloramine is the chemical taste in tap water, coffee and ice, and ordinary pitcher filters remove it poorly. It takes catalytic carbon with enough contact time.
• Disinfection by-products: total trihalomethanes (TTHM) 40.63 ppb at the highest-reading location (samples 9.5 to 51.4) and haloacetic acids (HAA5) 30.35 ppb (4.6 to 37.0). The limits are 80 and 60 ppb, so the water is within the rules, but these levels are noticeably higher than in membrane-heavy systems like Jupiter's. Carbon and reverse osmosis both reduce them.
• PFAS: the county's 2025 unregulated monitoring (UCMR 5) found PFOS averaging 9.2 parts per trillion (not detected up to 20 ppt) and PFOA averaging 4.7 ppt (not detected up to 9.0 ppt). The EPA's 4 ppt standards for PFOS and PFOA are not yet enforceable, so this is not a violation, but the average PFOS result is more than twice that standard. An under-sink reverse osmosis system is the practical way to take PFAS out of drinking water at home.
• Sodium: 49.7 ppm at the highest sampling point (range 18.2 to 49.7). Worth knowing for anyone on a low-sodium diet, and one reason we pair softeners with RO at the kitchen sink.
• Lead and copper at Westlake taps: SID's own sampling put the 90th-percentile lead result at 1.8 ppb in both June and December 2025, with no samples over the 15 ppb action level. Copper was 250 and 210 ppb against a 1,300 ppb action level. In a city of brand-new homes, that is what you would expect.
• Fluoride: the county stopped adding fluoride, according to the report's notes. The 0.898 ppm figure in the table comes from 2023 sampling, before the change.

What the report does not include is a hardness number. Treat any company that quotes a single 'Westlake hardness' figure with caution. Ours used to, and we removed it. We test hardness, chlorine, TDS and pH at your kitchen tap during the free visit and give you the results in writing.

Reverse Osmosis and Whole-Home Carbon for Westlake Homes

Because Westlake homes are on treated utility water rather than wells, the treatment plan is simpler than in The Acreage. Most homes need one or both of these:

1. Whole-home catalytic carbon at the point of entry, sized to your peak flow. It takes chloramine out of every shower and faucet and reduces TTHM and HAA5 throughout the house. In a new home, the garage is usually the right spot.
2. Under-sink reverse osmosis at the kitchen, with a line to the refrigerator. RO is what removes PFAS, sodium and dissolved solids from drinking and cooking water. Carbon alone does not reliably remove PFAS to low part-per-trillion levels.
3. A softener only if your test calls for it. Hardness depends on the county plant blend at the time, so we measure it before recommending a softener. If one makes sense, we size it to your measured hardness, not a guess.

Read more about reverse osmosis systems, whole-home filtration and water softeners, or book the free water test.

New-Construction Plumbing: Softener Loops, Tankless Heaters and Warranties

Westlake is still being built out. The City's water supply plan estimates about 3,625 homes and 8,774 residents in 2025, with 7,200 homes planned at build-out. That means most of our Westlake jobs are in homes that are months old, and the install looks different from a retrofit:

• Pre-plumbed loops: many builders rough in a point-of-entry loop in the garage. If yours has one, we connect to it, and the install is usually about two hours. If not, we add the tie-in ourselves. We confirm which situation you have at the water test, before quoting.
• Tankless water heaters: most manufacturers publish water-quality limits for hardness and chlorine in their installation manuals and warranty terms. Look up the limits for your model, and we will compare them with your measured results so you know whether treatment is needed to protect the warranty.
• New fixtures and glass: spotting on shower glass and new faucets comes from whatever hardness and dissolved solids are left in the water. Your test results tell you whether that is a softener problem or an RO and maintenance problem.
• Garage heat: Westlake garages get hot. We mount equipment out of direct sun and choose bypass and shutoff valves that are easy to reach for service.

Reuse Water, Irrigation Rules and Westlake's Tiered Rates

SID distributes reclaimed (reuse) water from Palm Beach County as well as drinking water, and the City enforces South Florida Water Management District's year-round irrigation rules. SID also uses a conservation rate structure: the price per gallon goes up as you use more.

That affects equipment choices. A softener that regenerates by timer instead of metered demand can waste hundreds of gallons a month in a big household. Older RO units send a lot of water down the drain. We install demand-initiated softener valves and efficient RO systems, and we keep treated water off irrigation lines, which never need it.

Westlake vs. Its Neighbors: Why the Advice Differs

• [The Acreage](/locations/the-acreage) and [Loxahatchee](/locations/loxahatchee): many homes are on private wells, where iron, hydrogen sulfide and bacteria drive the design. Different equipment from a Westlake home.
• [Royal Palm Beach](/locations/royal-palm-beach): served directly by PBCWUD, the same county-treated water Westlake buys, so the drinking-water advice is similar.
• [Wellington](/locations/wellington): runs its own Village utility with its own wells and a lime-softening and membrane plant, so its numbers are different.

If you are moving to Westlake from one of those areas, do not assume the system that worked at your last house is right for this one. Test first.