Florida Water Quality Rankings 2026: Best & Worst Cities

This page ranks the 87 Florida cities whose water systems we have matched to EPA records. Every city starts at 100 points and loses points for health-based EPA violations in the last five years (SDWIS 2026Q2), its most recent Lead and Copper Rule 90th-percentile result, PFAS detected in EPA's 2023–2026 UCMR5 monitoring, and 2012–2019 compliance samples that averaged near or above a limit. Letters follow fixed bands (A ≥90, B ≥80, C ≥70, D ≥60, F below 60). Cities run from the highest score (Ormond Beach) down to the lowest (Lauderhill); ties are ordered by population served. See the full scoring methodology for every deduction and the data vintages. 9 further Florida cities are listed at the bottom without a grade because we have not yet matched them to an EPA water system.

What your city's grade means

An A or B grade points to water that consistently tests within federal safety limits, while a C suggests moderate issues worth watching and a D or F flags contaminants or compliance problems serious enough to act on. These grades describe system-level water leaving the treatment plant — they can't account for your home's own plumbing, so older houses with lead service lines or fixtures can add contaminants after the water arrives. For a contaminant-by-contaminant view, see the Florida contaminant breakdown or drill into the county-level rankings.

What Florida residents should do

• Find your city in the ranking below and open its full report for its violation history, lead results and PFAS table.
• See how Florida compares against the best-rated and worst-rated cities nationwide.
• Test your home's water if you have concerns — the most common issues involve lead, PFAS, and arsenic.
• Check whether your utility still has lead service lines in Florida — EPA's inventory counts lead pipes by water system, a risk that plant-level grades cannot capture. Read the lead guide for testing and filter options.
• If treatment makes sense for your situation, compare certified water filters matched to the contaminants found in your area.

This ranking covers 96 Florida cities. 87 of them are matched to an active EPA-registered community water system (PWSID). Those 87 systems report serving 12,503,302 people in EPA's Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS).

Of 87 cities of the 96 Florida cities we can grade from EPA records, 40 cities (46%) grade B or better, 15 sit in the C range and 32 grade D or F. The average score is 77/100. 9 cities are not graded because they have not been matched to an EPA system yet.

EPA records 17 health-based violations in the last five years across 9 cities, and 2 cities still have a health-based violation listed as unresolved. Monitoring and reporting violations (973 in the same window) are paperwork lapses and cost far fewer points.

87 cities have a Lead and Copper Rule 90th-percentile result from 2020 or later: 3 cities at 5 ppb or more.

EPA's UCMR5 PFAS monitoring (2023–2026) covers 87 cities: PFAS were detected in 65 cities, and PFOA or PFOS reached EPA's 4 ppt limit in 52 cities.

Ormond Beach scores highest (100) and Lauderhill lowest (21), a 79-point spread.

The clearest hard data for Florida is EPA's service line inventory, updated 2026-08-18 (Q2 2026). 2,363 Florida systems inventoried 7,355,446 service lines: 8,406 confirmed lead plus 36,282 galvanized lines requiring replacement, spread across 51 systems. Another 1,666,672 lines (23%) are still of unknown material, which EPA counts as possible lead until verified.

Of the 85 city-linked Florida utilities with an inventory on file, 27 report at least one lead or galvanized-requiring-replacement line, 22 report none but still have a quarter or more of their lines unverified, and 36 report no lead with most lines verified. MDWASA - MAIN SYSTEM, which serves Miami and 2,377,460 people, is the biggest and reports no lead lines but 289,930 (62%) still unknown. The most lead lines among city-linked systems belong to WINTER HAVEN WATER DEPARTMENT (Winter Haven): 3,617.

Our Florida water guide flags nitrates, radium, trihalomethanes, and PFAS as the contaminants of regional concern. Nitrate (EPA MCL 10 mg/L (as nitrogen)) can cause methemoglobinemia ("blue baby syndrome") in infants under six months; Radium (EPA MCL 5 pCi/L (combined radium-226/228)) increases cancer risk with long exposure; Disinfection byproducts (regulated as TTHM (80 ppb) and HAA5 (60 ppb)) are associated with increased cancer risk over long exposure; PFAS (EPA 2024 MCLs of 4.0 ppt for PFOA and PFOS) are linked to immune, developmental, liver and some cancer effects.

Source water explains a lot of the pattern in Florida. Disinfection byproducts are a surface-water signature: chlorine reacts with organic matter in rivers and reservoirs, so byproducts tend to run higher where systems chlorinate surface water. Radium is naturally occurring and tends to show up in groundwater, leaching from bedrock into aquifers rather than arriving from pollution. Nitrate follows fertilizer, manure and septic loading, so it is most often a concern for systems drawing shallow groundwater in farm regions. PFAS are tied to specific sites — industrial discharges, firefighting-foam use at airports and bases — rather than to geology, so contamination is local and can affect either source type. Lead is different again: it enters after treatment from service lines and household plumbing, which is why the inventory figures above matter more than plant-level results. Your utility's Consumer Confidence Report names your source.

The best water quality in Florida is found in Ormond Beach with a score of 100/100 and a grade of A. This puts Ormond Beach among the top-performing cities in the country for drinking water safety.

The most concerning water quality is in Lauderhill scoring 21/100 with a grade of F. Residents may want to consider home water testing and filtration options.

The statewide average score is 77/100, which is 11 points below the national average of 88/100. Only 36% of Florida cities score above the national average, suggesting statewide water quality improvement is needed.