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Section · Hard and sulfur water
Aquifer Water: What Comes Out of the Tap Up Here
Floridan aquifer tap water is what nearly every home here drinks, whether a city plant pumps it or a backyard well does. It comes up hard and a little sulfurous, and each utility treats it its own way.
In this section
How Hard Is the Water North of Orlando?
Hard water in central Florida comes straight from the limestone aquifer. The two utilities that publish a figure, OUC and Winter Springs, both sit in the "hard" band; everyone else has to ask or test.
That Rotten-Egg Smell: Sulfur Water or a Gas Leak?
When water smells like rotten eggs, it is usually hydrogen sulfide from the aquifer or the water heater. But natural gas is scented to smell the same, so if the smell is anywhere but the running tap, leave first.
Do You Need a Water Softener North of Orlando?
A water softener in Florida only earns its keep if your water tests hard. Get a hardness number in grains per gallon first, then weigh the salt, sodium, regeneration water and upkeep that come with it.
Filtering Chloramine: Notes for Oviedo and Black Hammock
A whole house water filter for chloramine has to be certified for chloramine, not just chlorine. That matters mostly in Oviedo and the county's Black Hammock area, the only local water treated with chloramine.
Testing a Private Well in Geneva, Chuluota and Beyond
Private well water testing in Florida is up to the owner: no law requires it, but the health department urges a bacteria and nitrate test every year and lead every three years.
Reading Your Yearly Water Report, Line by Line
The water quality report for Seminole County is really eleven reports in one, and most cities publish their own. Find the one for your address, then read the disinfectant, range and limit columns.
This time of year, with the summer storms thinning out and the dry season on the way, plenty of us start noticing what the tap is up to: chalky rings on the kettle, a whiff off the hot side of the shower, a sales pitch for a softener. Nearly all of it traces back to one source. The Floridan aquifer system is the major source of ground water in Seminole County, and more than 90 percent of people in northeast and east-central Florida use groundwater.
Where does our water come from?
Every utility in this area names the Floridan as its source, from Oviedo, Winter Springs and Sanford to Longwood, Lake Mary, Altamonte Springs, Orange County Utilities and Seminole County Utilities. OUC draws from the deeper Lower Floridan, which it has used since 1957. Out past Lake Jesup, in Geneva, Chuluota and Black Hammock, households on private wells pump the same aquifer straight into the house.
The demand has grown a long way. USGS counted Floridan withdrawals in 1965 at about 11 million gallons per day across Seminole County, and withdrawals in 1995 at about 69 million gallons per day. In that 1995 count, 74 percent went to public supply and 12 percent to private household wells.
Million gallons per day, historical USGS figures for 1965 and 1995
Source: USGS WRI 01-4182
What does the aquifer bring along with it?
Raw Floridan water is not plain water. Sanford's own drinking water FAQ lists hydrogen sulfide gas, iron, manganese, sodium, chloride and sulfate, plus the calcium and magnesium that make water hard. The plants deal with the sulfide in different ways: ozone at OUC, at Sanford's second plant and in three Seminole County service areas, ultraviolet oxidation at Lake Mary, and aeration towers or trays nearly everywhere else.
Hardness mostly rides through to the faucet. Only OUC and Winter Springs publish a hardness figure, and both land in the "hard" band. For disinfection, Oviedo and the county's Black Hammock area get chloramine, while the rest of the suppliers here use chlorine.
The stories in this section
Start with hard water if you are fighting white crust on fixtures; it lays out the only two published numbers and how to get your own. If the hot tap smells like a struck match or worse, read the rotten-egg smell, which also covers telling sulfur water apart from a gas leak (if in doubt, leave the house first). Thinking about equipment? The water softeners story and the whole-house filters story both say what a test should show before you spend anything.
Well owners should keep private wells handy for testing schedules and the county permit office. And everyone on city or county water can learn to read the yearly water quality reports, which answer more questions than most people expect.