Summary of Florida's Water Reuse Guideline or Regulation for Potable Water Reuse

This page is part of the EPA’s REUSExplorer tool, which summarizes the different state level regulations or guidelines for water reuse for a variety of sources and end-uses.
The source water for this summary is Treated Municipal Wastewater.

On this page:

• Technical basis
• Types of planned potable reuse approved for use in Florida
• Water reuse treatment category/type
• Additional context and definitions
• Potable reuse specifications (table)
• Upcoming state law or policy
• References
• Disclaimer

This page is a summary of the state’s water reuse law or policy and is provided for informational purposes only. Please always refer to the state for the most accurate and updated information. 

In Florida, potable water reusepotable water reuseThe use of highly treated recycled water for drinking water purposes. This reuse application includes both indirect potable reuse through introduction of recycled water into an environmental buffer such as a surface reservoir or groundwater aquifer, and direct potable reuse through introduction of recycled water into a drinking water system. applications include indirect potable reuse (surface water augmentation and ground water injection) and direct potable reuse (drinking water augmentation) (Fla. Admin. Code r. 62-565.200). The source of water (treated municipal wastewatertreated municipal wastewaterTreated wastewater effluent discharged from a centralized wastewater treatment plant of any size. Other terms referring to this source of water include domestic wastewater, treated wastewater effluent, reclaimed water, and treated sewage.) is specified by the State as municipal wastewater. This write-up uses State terms when discussing sources or uses of water that may differ from the Regulations and End-Use Specifications Explorer's (REUSExplorer's) terms.

Technical basis

Potable water in the United States must meet all applicable Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) requirements, including its implementing regulations (40 C.F.R. § 141) for chemical and microbial contaminants, and pollutant discharges from a point source for surface water augmentation require a federal National Pollutant Discharge Elimination Systems (NPDES) permit (40 C.F.R. § 122). Florida requirements for both direct and indirect potable reuse are provided in Florida Administrative Code 62-565 (Chapter 62-565). The potable reuse regulations require that advanced treatment water facilities include joint operation plans and meet the maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) provided in Chapter 62-550 as well as the log reduction requirements as noted in Rule 62-565.530 prior to entry into a public distribution system (Fla. Admin. Code r. 62-565.500). These requirements are summarized in the Summary of Florida’s Potable Reuse Specifications table. 

Florida requires permits prior to the construction, operation, or modification of an Advanced Treatment Water Facility (ATWF). The applicant must submit the Advanced Treatment Water Facility Permit Application, DEP Form 62-565.300(2)(a) and any additional information requested to fulfill Rule 62-4.055 (Fla. Admin. Code r. 62-565.600). Permits will be issued to applications if reasonable assurance can be provided to the Department that the construction, modification, or operation of the ATWF will not contravene Chapter 403, F.S. or other Department rules based on preliminary design report, plans, test results, installation of pollution control equipment or other information (Fla. Admin. Code r. 62-565.605).

For pathogens, treatment techniques for potable reuse must ensure that the combined health risk of acute gastroenteritis is less than 1 in 10,000 annually for consumers drinking the water. The treatment technical requirements for both direct and indirect potable reuse consist of installing and properly operating filtration and disinfection water treatment processes that reliably achieve a 14-log reduction of enteric viruses (including rotaviruses and noroviruses), a 12-log reduction of Giardia lamblia cysts, and a 12-log reduction of Cryptosporidium oocytes between the raw wastewater and the finished drinking water with at least a 50% reduction achieved between a point where the source water is not subject to recontamination and a point downstream (Fla. Admin. Code r. 62-565.530), For enteric viruses, the log reductions must also be achieved at a point during treatment when the water is exposed to open atmosphere (Fla. Admin. Code r. 62-565.530). 

The technical basis of Florida’s pathogen reduction is derived from work reported by MacNevin and Zornes (2020) who determined the minimum treatment required to consistently achieve a 10−4 annual risk of infection. They used the concentrations of Cryptosporidium and Giardia lamblia at 20 different water reclamation facilities, based on FDEP's protozoa database, and determined the required level of treatment to achieve the predetermined annual risk of infection of 10−4 (every year for 1,000 simulated years). This approach resulted in a total of 40 values of treatment ranging from 5 to 10 logs reduction (rounding up to the nearest whole number), for both Cryptosporidium and Giardia.  A well operated wastewater treatment plant is assumed to provide 2-log protozoa reduction, and yielding the requirements of a 12-log reduction of Giardia lamblia cysts, and a 12-log reduction of Cryptosporidium oocytes between the raw wastewater and the finished drinking water. The specific technical derivation for the viral requirements was not found.

Log reduction credits may be included for every point of the treatment barrier from the domestic wastewater treatment facility, environmental buffer, ATWF, and public water system in the calculation of the total log reduction credits achieved for each of Giardia lamblia cysts, Cryptosporidium oocytes, and enteric viruses. A potable reuse applicant must propose values for log reduction value credits in its engineering report based on engineering analysis, pilot studies, available research, and guidance. 

At least two separate treatment processes are required for reduction of Giardia cysts, Cryptosporidium oocysts, and enteric viruses. Each treatment process may be credited with no more than a 6.0-log reduction and each treatment process must achieve at least 1.0 log reduction to be included in the log reduction crediting.  Each treatment process may receive log reduction credits for one or more pathogens (Fla. Admin. Code r. 62-565.500). Further information on log reduction credits (LRCs), defined as “the number of credits assigned to a specific treatment process (e.g., microfiltration, chlorine disinfection, or ultraviolet disinfection), expressed in log units, for the inactivation or removal of a specific microorganism or group of microorganisms” (Fla. Admin Code r. 62-565.200) can be found in Fla. Admin. Code r. 62-565.530.

In Florida, indirect potable water reuse applications include delivery or discharge to groundwater or surface water to develop or supplement the potable water supply (Fla. Admin. Code r. 62-565.200). Florida indirect potable reuse (IPR) regulations require specific requirements before the reclaimed or advanced treated water may be discharged to surface waters or ground water (Fla. Admin. Code r. 62-565.100(1)(c)). Additionally, advanced treatment water facilities that have an aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) system must be designed and operated to meet the primary and secondary drinking water standards that are established in Rules 62-565.310 and 62-565.320 (Fla. Admin. Code r. 62-565.510).

Types of planned potable reuse approved for use in Florida

Fla. Admin. Code r. 62-565.100 defines the following approved planned potable uses:

• Direct potable reuse: the delivery of advanced treated water from an ATWF to a drinking water treatment facility or directly into a potable water supply distribution system. This type of potable reuse does not include an environmental buffer.
• Indirect potable reuse: the planned delivery or discharge of reclaimed water, prior to treatment at an ATWF, or advanced treated water leaving the ATWF, to ground or surface waters for the development of, or to supplement or replace, potable water sources.

Water reuse treatment category/type

Florida does not assign reclaimed water used for indirect potable reuse or direct potable reuse to a category or class.

Additional context and definitions

Florida uses the term Advanced Treated Water for water produced from an advanced treatment water facility for potable reuse applications (Fla. Admin. Code r. 62-565.100). An advanced treatment water facility is a facility where advanced treated water is produced. The specific combination of treatment technologies employed will depend on the quality of the reclaimed water and the type of potable reuse.

The state of Florida includes requirements for industrial pretreatment for potable reuse systems (Fla. Admin. Code r. 62-565.505), including aquifer storage recovery (ASR) systems associated with potable reuse (Fla. Admin. Code r. 62-565.510), and off-spec storage requirements for advanced treatment water facilities (Fla. Admin. Code r. 62-565.520) in Chapter 62-565.

Pilot testing is required for all ATWF projects and approval of a plan of study must be obtained before pilot testing may begin. Pilot testing specifies certain requirements such as meeting the MCLs and minimum residual disinfectant levels in Rule 62-550.310, F.A.C., providing reasonable assurance the potable reuse system is capable of producing a reclaimed water that meets the requirements of Rule 62-565.530, accumulating 12 months of data required with provisions for shorter duration of study, requirements for filtration/reverse osmosis/oxidation treatment train, requirements for ozonation/biologically activated carbon treatment process, and requirements for ultraviolet processes (Fla. Admin. Code r. 62-565.560). An engineering report, which includes items such as the source water evaluation and results of the pilot testing program, must be submitted with the permit application (Fla. Admin. Code r. 62-565.570). Additionally, for total organic carbon (TOC), a single sample may not exceed 5.0 mg/L and may not exceed 3.0 mg/L as the average monthly limitation (Fla. Admin. Code r. 62-610.555).

Additional details on the following topics can be found within the following regulation sections Fla. Admin. Code r. 62-565:

• Forms and References (62-565.300)
• Signatories to Permit Applications and Reports (62-565.400)
• Requirements for Potable Reuse Systems (62-565.500)
• Industrial Pretreatment Requirements for Potable Reuse Systems (62-565.505)
• Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) Systems associated with Potable Reuse Systems (62-565.510)
• Off-spec Storage Requirements for Advanced Treatment Water Facilities (62-565.520)
• Pathogen Requirements for Potable Reuse Systems (62-565.530)
• Monitoring Requirements for Advanced Treatment Water Facilities and Potable Reuse Systems (62-565.540)
• Reporting Requirements for Advanced Treatment Water Facilities (62-565.550)
• Pilot Testing Program (62-565.560)
• Engineering Report (62-565.570)
• Design and Construction (62.565-580)
• Operation and Maintenance (62-565.590)
• Procedure to Obtain Permits (62-565.600)
• Standards for Issuing or Denying Permits (62-565.605)
• Revisions to Permit Conditions (62-565.610)
• Renewals (62-565.615)
• Transfer of Permit (62-565.620)
• Suspension and Revocation (62-565.625)
• Recordkeeping (62-565.630)
• Application Processing (62-565.635)
• Public Notice (62-565.640)
• Public Comments and Requests for Public Meetings (62-565.645).
• General Conditions for All Permits (62-565.650)
• Guidelines for Establishing Specific Permit Conditions (62-565.655)
• Compliance for Advanced Treatment Water Facilities and Potable Reuse Systems (62-565.700)

Potable reuse specifications

Summary of Florida's Potable Reuse Specifications

Sources = Fla. Admin. Code r. 62-565.540, 65-565.530, 62-600.445, and 62-610.
^aInorganics, volatile organics, synthetic organics, secondary contaminants, gross alpha, radium-226 and uranium, and beta particle and photon radioactivity shall be as defined in Fla. Admin. Code r.  62-550.
^bFor those systems using chlorine or chloramines for disinfection.
^cFor those systems using chlorine dioxide for disinfection.
^dFor those systems using ozone for disinfection.
^eFor those systems using ultraviolet for disinfection.
^fPer- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) field testing, sample collection and preservation, laboratory testing, including quality control procedures, and all record keeping shall comply with Fla. Admin. Code r. 62-160 and 62-550. The analytical test methods shall be sufficiently sensitive to ensure department-established MDLs and PQLs are met.
^gThe Hazard Index (HI) is made up of a sum of fractions. Each fraction compares the level of each PFAS measured in the water to the highest level determined not to have risk of health effects. Further information on the HI can be found in Table 1 of Fla. Admin. Code r. 62-565.540. 

Upcoming state law or policy

No anticipated updates.

References:

Disinfection Requirements, Fla. Admin. Code r. 62-600.440.

Drinking Water Standards, Monitoring, and Reporting, Fla. Admin. Code r. 62-550.

EPA-Administered Permit Programs: The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, 40 C.F.R. § 122.

MacNevin D & Zornes G. 2020. Health risks from protozoa in potable reuse: Implications of Florida's data set. AWWA Water Science. 2(5). 

National Primary Drinking Water Regulations, 40 C.F.R. § 141.

pH Requirements, Fla. Admin. Code r. 62-600.445.

Potable Reuse, Fla. Admin. Code r. 65-565.

Reuse of Reclaimed Water and Land Application, Fla. Admin. Code r. 62-610.

Disclaimers

Please contact us at waterreuse@epa.gov if the information on this page needs updating or if this state is updating or planning to update its laws and policies and we have not included that information on the news page.