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TL;DR: Roughly 2 to 3 million Floridians drink from private wells, and no public utility tests that water for them. Iron stains, rotten-egg smell from hydrogen sulfide, hardness, bacteria, and PFAS are the five problems we see most often in homes across The Acreage, Loxahatchee, Jupiter Farms, Port St. Lucie, and Southwest Ranches. This guide walks through what to test for, how to read the results, and the four-stage system stack that actually fixes the problems.
| Focus | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Florida well owners | About 2 to 3 million Floridians use private wells. The state does not test or treat that water for you. |
| Top two complaints | Iron and hydrogen sulfide. Both come from Florida’s aquifer chemistry, and both stain or smell up everything they touch. |
| What FL DOH recommends | Annual tests for coliform bacteria, nitrate, lead, and pH at minimum. For South Florida add iron, sulfide, hardness, and PFAS. |
| PFAS reality | Florida DEP confirms PFAS is widespread in South Florida groundwater. No state requirement to test private wells for it. |
| The fix | Iron and sulfur oxidation, a softener for hardness, UV for bacteria, and reverse osmosis at the kitchen sink. Skip any stage and the next one fails. |
In 2026, roughly 2 to 3 million Floridians get their drinking water from a private well, and unlike city water, no one tests it for them. The Florida Department of Health recommends annual testing for coliform bacteria, nitrate, lead, and pH. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection runs a separate program for public-system wells but does not require routine PFAS testing on private wells. That gap is why so many well-owning homes in The Acreage, Loxahatchee, Jupiter Farms, Port St. Lucie, and Southwest Ranches discover problems only after the orange stains show up in the laundry or the kitchen smells like a struck match.
This guide explains the five problems we see most in South Florida wells, how to test for each one, and the four-stage system stack that actually solves them. If you are on city water instead, our 2026 South Florida Tap Water Report is the matching guide for your utility.
Florida groundwater spends decades moving through limestone, sand, and decaying organic matter before it reaches your well. That path picks up iron from the bedrock, calcium and magnesium from the limestone, and hydrogen sulfide from sulfate-reducing bacteria living deep in the aquifer. By the time the water reaches your pump, all of it is in there.
The two main private-well sources in southeast Florida are the Surficial Aquifer (shallow, often 50 to 250 feet) and the Floridan Aquifer (deeper, 800 to 1,200 feet). Surficial wells in The Acreage and Loxahatchee typically come up softer but pick up more iron and bacteria from organic matter near the surface. Floridan wells run harder and often hit higher hydrogen sulfide.
The geology that makes South Florida sit on top of one of the largest freshwater aquifers in the United States is the same geology that delivers iron stains, rotten-egg smell, and 18+ grain-per-gallon hardness to homes outside city water service. Nothing about the aquifer is wrong. It just needs treatment before it reaches your tap.
The Florida DOH baseline is coliform bacteria, nitrate, lead, and pH. For South Florida private wells we add four more based on field experience: iron, hydrogen sulfide, hardness, and PFAS. Test all five categories at least once after the well is drilled, and the bacteria + nitrate + iron + sulfide panel every year after that.
Coliform alone is not enough. We have tested wells in Jupiter Farms with zero bacteria, zero nitrate, and 4 ppm hydrogen sulfide, which is unsafe to drink and impossible to live with. Run the full panel.
Iron in well water shows up as orange-brown stains on sinks, toilets, white laundry, and concrete driveways. It gives water a metallic taste, clogs sediment filters within weeks, and reduces the life of water heaters and washing machines. The EPA secondary standard is 0.3 mg/L, which is the threshold above which staining and taste become noticeable.
Many Florida wells we test run between 1 and 5 mg/L of total iron. That is 3 to 17 times the staining threshold. The problem gets worse over time because iron oxidizes inside the pipes and slowly builds a coating that flakes off into the water during high-demand events (a long shower, the irrigation cycle, a full dishwasher run).
Iron in well water comes in two forms.
Most Florida wells deliver a mix of both. The oxidation stage in a proper well treatment system converts ferrous to ferric, then a backwashing filter catches it before it reaches the rest of the house.
Hydrogen sulfide gas. The gas is produced by sulfate-reducing bacteria living deep in the aquifer, or by sulfur compounds in the bedrock itself. The nose detects it at concentrations as low as 0.5 ppm, which means a well that smells faintly of rotten eggs is already over that threshold.
The bigger problem is what hydrogen sulfide does to your plumbing. At concentrations above 2 ppm, it corrodes copper pipes, ruins water heater anodes within months, blackens silver, and tarnishes brass fittings. The smell concentrates inside the water heater because heat accelerates the bacterial growth that creates more of the gas. Many Florida homeowners discover the problem when they replace a water heater after only three or four years of use.
Letting the well run does not solve hydrogen sulfide the way it solves chlorine. The gas is constantly regenerated by the bacteria upstream of the pump. The fix is an oxidation stage at the well head, which converts the sulfide into a solid sulfate that a backwashing filter then removes. We size that stage to the sulfide reading from your test. A well at 0.5 ppm needs a much smaller system than a well at 5 ppm.
Three more issues show up on almost every South Florida well test. Each one needs a different treatment stage.
Hardness. Florida groundwater is hard because it runs through limestone. We commonly see 15 to 25 grains per gallon in untreated well water in Jupiter Farms, The Acreage, and Southwest Ranches. The USGS classifies anything above 10.5 gpg as “very hard.” The fix is a salt-based softener after the iron and sulfur stages.
PFAS. Florida DEP confirms that PFAS contamination is widespread in southeast Florida groundwater. Public wells near former industrial sites and military installations have well-documented exposure. Private wells in The Acreage, Loxahatchee, and the western parts of Palm Beach and Broward sit in agricultural-runoff zones with historical pesticide and firefighting-foam use. The state does not require private wells to test for PFAS, which is why so many homeowners do not know they have it. Our broader PFAS in South Florida tap water guide covers the regulatory side and removal options.
Bacteria. Coliform and E. coli typically come from septic systems too close to the wellhead, surface flooding, or a cracked well casing. South Florida’s rainy season and hurricane recovery periods are the highest-risk windows. UV light disinfection is the chemical-free standard treatment, and it pairs cleanly with the rest of the well stack.
You have three paths. Most homeowners use a combination of all three over time.
County health department test. Free or low-cost (typically $25 to $50). Covers bacteria, nitrate, and sometimes lead. The right starting point if you just moved in or just had a hurricane. The downside is the panel is narrow: it does not cover iron, sulfide, hardness, or PFAS. Contact the Palm Beach County, St. Lucie County, or Broward County health department for kit pickup.
Private accredited lab. Run a full panel (bacteria, nitrate, lead, pH, hardness, iron, manganese, hydrogen sulfide, copper, and PFAS) through an NSF-accredited Florida lab. Cost is roughly $100 to $300 depending on whether PFAS is included. This is the comprehensive answer and the only path that catches PFAS reliably.
Free in-home Sorso test. Our field team comes to your property, samples at the well head and the kitchen sink, and tests for hardness, iron, hydrogen sulfide, TDS, chlorine, and pH on the spot. Combined with the lab panel above for PFAS and bacteria, this is the cleanest path to a sized recommendation. Book a free in-home test here.
The Florida DOH recommendation is annual testing for the bacteria and nitrate panel. We recommend re-running the full lab panel after any taste, color, or smell change, after any hurricane that flooded the wellhead, or after any septic-system repair upstream of the well.
A working Florida well treatment system is four stages, in order, sized to your test results. Skip any stage and the next one wears out faster.
The cleanest setup pairs all four into a single well treatment package on the main water line, plus a Premio or Mini RO under the kitchen sink. Here is how the stages map to Sorso systems.
| Stage | System | Best for | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Oxidation | Iron/Sulfur Reduction | Wells with orange stains or rotten egg smell | Oxidizes iron and hydrogen sulfide, then backwashes them out |
| 2. Hardness | Whole-Home Softener | Wells over 7 gpg hardness | Ion-exchange removal of calcium and magnesium |
| 3. Bacteria | UV Light System | Wells with any coliform history | Chemical-free disinfection, low maintenance |
| 4. Drinking polish | Sorso Premio System | PFAS, metals, taste, every kitchen | Multi-stage RO + mineralization + pH adjustment |
A typical Jupiter Farms, Acreage, or Port St. Lucie installation runs in a single day. We coordinate the well-head plumbing, the salt-tank placement, the UV power supply, and the under-sink RO in one visit. The post-install water test is part of the appointment.
Florida well water is one of the hardest waters in the United States, and the only one where the contamination profile shifts every time the rainy season hits. Iron stains, rotten-egg smell, and 18+ gpg hardness are universal. PFAS contamination is widespread per Florida DEP, and no state agency tests private wells for it. The fix is a four-stage stack (iron/sulfur oxidation, softener, UV, RO drinking) sized to your individual test results, not a generic install.
We test wells across The Acreage, Loxahatchee, Jupiter Farms, Port St. Lucie, Wellington, Davie, and Southwest Ranches every week. Schedule a free in-home water test in one short call, and we will measure hardness, iron, hydrogen sulfide, TDS, and pH at your well head and your kitchen sink. The recommendation comes back the same day, sized to your specific numbers. No charge, no pressure.
Yes. The Florida Department of Health recommends an annual test for coliform bacteria, nitrate, lead, and pH on every private well in the state. For South Florida wells we also recommend testing iron, hydrogen sulfide, hardness, and PFAS at least once, and re-running the bacteria and nitrate panel after every hurricane that flooded the well head.
Hydrogen sulfide gas, produced by sulfate-reducing bacteria living in the aquifer or by sulfur compounds in the bedrock. The smell is detectable at 0.5 ppm and corrodes plumbing above 2 ppm. The fix is an oxidation stage at the well head that converts the gas into a solid, then filters it out before the water reaches the rest of the house.
Only after testing and treatment. The Acreage and Loxahatchee sit inside one of Florida’s most productive agricultural regions and are inside a documented PFAS contamination zone. Many wells also carry iron, hydrogen sulfide, and hardness at levels that exceed EPA secondary standards. We run a full lab panel plus an in-home iron/sulfide/hardness test before recommending a system, and the standard solution is a four-stage well treatment package plus RO at the kitchen sink.
No. Brita pitcher filters use activated carbon for taste and chlorine. They are not designed to oxidize iron, neutralize hydrogen sulfide, or filter the heavy solids that come out of a Florida well. Pitcher filters also clog within days when fed well water with any iron content. The correct fix is whole-house oxidation and filtration at the well head, with a reverse osmosis system at the sink for drinking water.
A complete four-stage stack (iron and sulfur reduction, softener, UV light, and an under-sink RO) typically installs in one day. Pricing depends on your iron and sulfide readings, your household size, and whether you need a softener resin grade rated for high-iron service. Our free in-home test gives you a sized quote at the appointment with no obligation.
