Local Water Quality
PFAS Forever Chemicals in Miami, FL Water — What South Florida Residents Need to Know
Miami's water story is unlike any other major Florida city's. While most of Florida relies on the deep Floridan Aquifer for drinking water, Miami-Dade County draws from the Biscayne Aquifer — a shallow, highly productive but extraordinarily vulnerable surface aquifer that lies just 20–50 feet beneath much of the Miami metro. This proximity to the surface makes the Biscayne Aquifer a world-class water supply resource and simultaneously one of the most contamination-vulnerable freshwater systems in the country — including from PFAS, the "forever chemicals."
The Biscayne Aquifer: Remarkable and Vulnerable
The Biscayne Aquifer is designated as a "Sole Source Aquifer" by the EPA — meaning it's the only feasible drinking water source for the region. Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department (WASD) is one of the largest utilities in the Southeast, serving approximately 2.3 million people. The water is extracted from the aquifer, treated at several major treatment plants, and distributed through an extensive network.
The aquifer's shallowness and high permeability mean contaminants from the surface reach it quickly. Unlike the deep Floridan Aquifer, which has thick confining clay layers above it that act as natural filters, the Biscayne Aquifer is recharged directly by rainfall and surface water with minimal natural filtration. Any PFAS released at the surface — from industrial sites, military facilities, fire training areas, airports, or consumer product runoff — can travel to the aquifer relatively quickly.
PFAS Sources in the Miami-Dade Area
Miami International Airport (MIA): Major airports are significant PFAS contamination sources nationally due to decades of AFFF use in fire suppression training and emergency response. MIA, one of the busiest airports in the United States, sits directly over the Biscayne Aquifer. PFAS from airport operations represent a legitimate and documented concern for groundwater in the vicinity.
Homestead Air Reserve Base: Located in southern Miami-Dade County, Homestead ARB has a military history including extensive use of AFFF firefighting foam. The Air Force and EPA have conducted PFAS assessments at Homestead and identified contamination, making this a known PFAS hotspot in the Miami-Dade region.
Industrial sites and manufacturing history: Miami-Dade County has a long history of industrial operations, dry cleaning facilities (which use PFAS-adjacent chemicals), fire training operations, and manufacturing sites that may have released PFAS into the environment over decades.
Urban stormwater: In a dense metropolitan area, stormwater runoff carries PFAS from consumer products — non-stick cookware, stain-resistant fabrics, food packaging — into the surface water network that recharges the Biscayne Aquifer.
WASD's Treatment and the Limits of Conventional Processing
Miami-Dade WASD operates advanced water treatment facilities capable of addressing many contaminants. However, conventional water treatment — coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, filtration, disinfection — does not remove PFAS. The regulatory pressure from EPA's 2024 PFAS rules is pushing large utilities like WASD to evaluate PFAS treatment options including granular activated carbon (GAC) and high-pressure membrane systems. These are expensive, long-term infrastructure investments.
In the interim, Miami residents who want PFAS protection have available options that provide the level of removal that even the most advanced utility treatment struggles to achieve at the point of use.
Protecting Your Miami Household
Under-sink reverse osmosis: The most effective and practical point-of-use PFAS protection. A 4- or 5-stage RO system under the kitchen sink achieves 90–99% removal of PFOA, PFOS, and a broad range of PFAS compounds. For Miami's water, which already benefits from WASD's treatment, a residential RO system provides an additional order of magnitude of PFAS reduction. Miami's water is also moderately hard (6–12 GPG depending on location and source blend) and treated with chloramines — the RO system addresses all of these simultaneously.
NSF 58-certified activated carbon: For whole-house or countertop filtration, look specifically for NSF/ANSI 58 certification for PFAS reduction — not all carbon filters carry this certification. The certification confirms testing against PFOA and PFOS at minimum, and many certified systems address a broader PFAS panel.
For Miami residents — particularly those in households with young children, pregnant women, or individuals with thyroid or immune conditions — point-of-use PFAS filtration is a straightforward investment in health. The cost of an under-sink RO system pales next to the cost of bottled water over time, and it eliminates the plastic waste and supply chain concerns of bottled water dependence.