Florida Drinking Water Violations Explained: What the EPA Records Show

Florida has more EPA “serious violators” than any other state in our data: 27 of the 34 large US water systems with that label are in Florida. But the violations behind those labels are almost all about testing, reporting and customer notices, not contaminants found above legal limits. Of 237 violation entries listed for the 93 large Florida systems we grade, 232 are monitoring, reporting, Consumer Confidence Report or public notice violations. Five are health-based.

That pattern matches what Florida’s own regulators report. Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) says the “vast majority” of compliance issues in 2024 were administrative and not health-based. This post walks through the numbers, the rules involved, and what they do and don’t mean.

Where this data comes from

TapWaterSafety.org grades 1,000 US public water systems, each serving more than 50,000 people. 93 are in Florida, serving about 16.5 million people combined. For each, we pulled its record from EPA’s Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO). Source: EPA ECHO compliance records, checked October 7, 2026; last 12 quarters.

This covers Florida’s larger systems only. Florida had 4,965 active public water systems at the end of 2024, according to DEP, most of them small. Our numbers say nothing about those smaller systems.

Florida vs. the rest of the country

So Florida’s large systems are far more likely to have a violation on record, and far more likely to have one in every quarter. But they are less likely than systems elsewhere to have a health-based violation listed. We count a violation as health-based if EPA lists it as a maximum contaminant level (MCL), maximum residual disinfectant level (MRDL) or treatment technique (TT) violation.

Which rules the violations fall under

Here is how the 237 entries for Florida systems break down by rule:

By category, that’s 172 monitoring entries, 25 reporting entries, 35 notice or CCR entries, 4 MCL entries and 1 treatment technique entry.

A monitoring violation means a system did not collect or report a required sample on time. Florida DEP defines it as “the failure of a water system to monitor or report as required.” It is a real compliance failure, because testing is how problems get caught. But it is not evidence that a contaminant was found.

Many Florida entries are old and still open

Every one of the 237 entries for Florida systems is listed as open in EPA’s records. Elsewhere, 474 of 679 entries (70%) are open.

Some Florida entries are very old. Thirty-six entries at 27 systems have start dates before 2020, and a few go back to 2003 and 2004, mostly Consumer Confidence Rule and Lead and Copper Rule monitoring entries.

This matters for the serious violator label. EPA’s ECHO FAQ explains that the label goes to systems with at least 11 points from unresolved violations. A violation counts as “continuing” until it is reported as corrected or addressed by a formal enforcement action. EPA expects either to happen within six months. Old violations that stay open can keep a system on the list.

Our data can’t tell you whether an open entry reflects an ongoing problem or a record that has not been closed out. Only DEP or the utility can answer that.

Florida’s 27 serious violators

The 27 Florida serious violators together serve about 3.4 million people. Sixteen of them list a city in Broward County, such as Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Pembroke Pines and Coral Springs. Twenty were in violation in all 12 quarters.

Only two of the 27 have a health-based violation listed. The other 25 have only monitoring, reporting, notice or CCR violations. All 27 have an entry under the Revised Total Coliform Rule.

For the full list with populations and violation types, see our post on EPA serious violators.

The five Florida systems with health-based violations

• Lauderhill, City of (F, 44): an open MCL violation under the Stage 2 disinfection byproducts rule since January 2024. Also a serious violator.
• Pembroke Pines, City of (F, 48): an open MCL violation under the Revised Total Coliform Rule since April 2023. Also a serious violator.
• Palm Beach County Water Utilities (B, 78): an open Revised Total Coliform Rule MCL violation since December 2023.
• Northeast (Davenport) (C, 67): an open Revised Total Coliform Rule MCL violation since November 2023.
• West Palm Beach WTP (C, 70): an open treatment technique violation under the surface water treatment rules since July 2024.

Under the Revised Total Coliform Rule, which took effect April 1, 2016, EPA no longer issues MCL violations for total coliform detections alone. The rule’s MCL is tied to E. coli. Treatment technique violations come from failing to complete required assessments, or required corrective actions, after positive samples. For what E. coli results mean, see our boil water advisory guide.

What Florida DEP reports statewide

Florida runs its own drinking water program. EPA gave the state that authority under Section 1413 of the Safe Drinking Water Act. DEP runs the program with six district offices and six county health department programs delegated by the Florida Department of Health.

DEP’s annual report on violations for calendar year 2024 (published August 2025) covers all of the state’s public water systems, large and small:

• 4,965 active systems: 1,585 community systems, 739 non-transient non-community systems and 2,641 transient non-community systems.
• 2,198 systems had at least one violation, with 15,888 violations in total.
• By our count from DEP’s summary table, about 15,650 (98.5%) were monitoring, reporting, CCR or public notice violations. About 197 were MCL violations and 39 were treatment technique violations.
• Coliform: 2,773 major monitoring violations at 1,251 systems, and 5 acute MCL violations (E. coli or fecal coliform) at 5 systems.
• Disinfection byproducts: 149 MCL violations at 38 systems, and 1,272 monitoring or reporting violations at 258 systems.
• Lead and Copper Rule: 389 violations at 367 systems, nearly all for missed routine or follow-up monitoring. No system had a violation for failing to take corrective action.

DEP summed it up this way: the “vast majority” of 2024 compliance issues were “administrative (timely submittal of monitoring and reporting paperwork)” and “not health-based or related to water quality.”

These statewide figures cover one calendar year and every system size, so they are not directly comparable to our 12-quarter numbers for 93 large systems. But they point the same way.

How Florida’s large systems grade

Violations are only one part of a TapWaterSafety grade. Monitoring and reporting problems make up 10% of the score (see our methodology). The 93 Florida systems average 71.7, a C, which ranks 9th of 29 states with at least 10 systems in our state grades ranking.

• Grades: 6 A, 38 B, 27 C, 13 D and 9 F.
• Serious violators score lower: they average 63.1, compared with 75.2 for other Florida systems. Eight of Florida’s nine F grades are serious violators.
• Top concerns: haloacetic acids (HAA9) above EWG’s health guideline appear for 86 of 93 systems, total trihalomethanes for 60, and PFAS for 38. These are measured levels compared with health guidelines that are usually stricter than legal limits. See our explainer on disinfection byproducts.
• Source: 74 of the 93 rely on groundwater.

Fifteen large Florida systems had no violation in any of the last 12 quarters, including A-graded Okaloosa County, Regional Utilities and Ormond Beach.

What to do if you live in Florida

1. Look up your system on our Florida page or search by ZIP code.
2. Open the EPA report linked from your utility page and check whether each violation is health-based and still open.
3. Read your Consumer Confidence Report. Our guide on how to read your water quality report explains the tables.
4. Ask your utility or DEP whether old open violations have been corrected. EPA notes that violations show up in ECHO about 4 to 5 months after they occur, and states may have more current data.

For state-by-state violation rates, see states ranked by drinking water violations.

Note: utilities may have resolved issues since October 7, 2026. Check each utility’s EPA ECHO report or its latest Consumer Confidence Report for current status.

Sources

• Florida DEP: Annual Report on Violations, Calendar Year 2024 (August 2025)
• Florida DEP: 2024 Annual Compliance Report page
• EPA ECHO: Safe Drinking Water Act Resources and FAQs
• EPA: Revised Total Coliform Rule and Total Coliform Rule
• EPA ECHO: Detailed Facility Reports (linked from each utility page)