Utilities in Fort Lauderdale — Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Fort Lauderdale, the county seat of Broward County, operates a municipally owned water and wastewater utility system administered by the City's Utility Services division, which functions under the Department of Public Works. According to the City of Fort Lauderdale Utility Services division, the system serves 176,000 residents, 300,000 visitors, and six neighboring municipalities, making it one of the largest municipal utility providers in South Florida. Electric service is provided by Florida Power & Light (FPL), a private utility, while solid waste collection falls under the regional Solid Waste Authority of Broward County (SWA). Utility billing is administered by the City's Finance Department, with a new rate structure approved by the City Commission on September 12, 2025 and effective October 1, 2025. The city's flat coastal geography and dependence on the Biscayne Aquifer — documented in the City of Fort Lauderdale 10-Year Water Supply Facilities Work Plan — shape the technical design of water supply, treatment, and disposal infrastructure across the entire system.

Fort Lauderdale's potable water supply is produced at three named treatment facilities. The oldest is the Charles F. Fiveash Regional Water Treatment Plant, constructed in 1954 and subsequently expanded four times over the following four decades. The facility covers one million square feet on an 11.5-acre parcel near I-95 and Prospect Road, representing one of the city's most enduring and largest capital infrastructure investments.

The second facility, the Peele-Dixie Water Treatment Plant, draws raw water from a wellfield containing eight Biscayne Aquifer wells located at the Fort Lauderdale Country Club. The plant achieves 85% water recovery as permeate, reflecting the membrane-based treatment technology in use. The Biscayne Aquifer underlies the city and, according to the City's 10-Year Water Supply Facilities Work Plan, is central to the region's water supply strategy.

The third and most recently developed facility is the Prospect Lake Clean Water Center, a public-private partnership (P3) project designed to replace aging capacity at the Fiveash Plant. The City of Fort Lauderdale reports that the Prospect Lake project was named Best P3 Utility Project of the Year by P3 Bulletin, recognizing the innovative financing and delivery structure used to modernize Fort Lauderdale's water production capacity.

Wastewater treatment is centralized at the George T. Lohmeyer (GTL) Wastewater Treatment Plant, which the City of Fort Lauderdale documents as averaging 36.3 million gallons per day (MGD) of treatment capacity. Prior to 1978, the city and surrounding area were served by eight individual wastewater treatment plants; following regional planning recommendations, those facilities were consolidated into the GTL plant as a single centralized regional facility.

The GTL plant's service area extends well beyond Fort Lauderdale's municipal boundaries. According to the City's documentation, the facility serves Wilton Manors, Oakland Park, Port Everglades, sections of Tamarac, and unincorporated Broward County in addition to Fort Lauderdale itself. This regional function reflects the hydrological and planning interdependencies that characterize South Florida's flat, low-lying coastal geography.

Infrastructure investment in the wastewater system has continued in recent years. The Mayor's infrastructure page documents a new downtown pump station designed to add 1 million gallons of daily sewage capacity, as well as deep injection well upgrades — a disposal method appropriate to South Florida's geology — and approximately 23,370 feet of large sewer pipeline upgrades from Sunrise Boulevard undertaken with Lanzo Construction Company.

The physical network supporting Fort Lauderdale's water and wastewater system is documented by the City's Distribution and Collection division as comprising more than 1,400 miles of potable water mains, sanitary sewer force mains, and gravity mains, along with water meters, raw water wells, well pumps, valves, and wastewater pump stations distributed across the city.

The City's Public Works public notices page documents several active infrastructure projects as of the time of research. In the Idlewyld neighborhood, the City is working with Craven Thompson & Associates, Inc. (CTA) to design plans for undergrounding overhead utilities — specifically AT&T, Comcast, and FPL lines — as part of a neighborhood utility undergrounding initiative. Bridge replacement projects are under way along West Lake Drive in Harbor Beach and SE 7th Street in Rio Vista. Additionally, sewer lateral inspections are documented as active in the Dolphin Isles, Central Beach, and Lauderdale Beach neighborhoods, reflecting ongoing assessment of the city's older lateral infrastructure.

Fort Lauderdale's extensive canal network — a defining physical feature of the city — shapes the routing and engineering requirements of underground utility work and bridge-linked infrastructure, as reflected in the Public Works project list.

Electric service in Fort Lauderdale is provided by Florida Power & Light (FPL), a subsidiary of NextEra Energy, Inc. The Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance describes FPL as the largest electric utility in the United States. FPL is a privately regulated utility and is not administered by the City of Fort Lauderdale; rate-setting and service territory matters fall under Florida Public Service Commission jurisdiction rather than the City Commission.

According to The Westside Gazette, FPL's smart grid technology prevented more than 800,000 outages in South Florida during the 2024 hurricane season, with more than 2.7 million customer interruptions avoided statewide in 2024 through self-healing grid technology. FPL has also announced planned upgrades for Broward County that include the conversion of overhead neighborhood power lines to underground lines, a program that complements the City of Fort Lauderdale's own utility undergrounding initiatives.

Solid waste collection and disposal is administered by the Solid Waste Authority of Broward County (SWA), a regional agency serving 28 Broward County member municipalities including Fort Lauderdale. The SWA has documented a public goal of increasing Broward County's recycling rate from 39% to 75% while reducing landfill waste — a regional environmental infrastructure objective that applies to Fort Lauderdale residents.

The most significant recent action in Fort Lauderdale's utility governance was the City Commission's approval of a new utility rate structure at its September 12, 2025 public meeting. According to the City's official utility billing page, the new rates took effect October 1, 2025. The City notes that its average total utility bill remains among the lowest compared to other local municipalities, though the page does not specify which municipalities are included in that comparison.

On the capital infrastructure side, the sewer pipeline upgrade of approximately 23,370 feet from Sunrise Boulevard — undertaken with Lanzo Construction Company — and the new downtown pump station adding 1 million gallons of daily sewage capacity represent the most recently documented wastewater investments, per the Mayor's infrastructure page. The Prospect Lake Clean Water Center's recognition as Best P3 Utility Project of the Year by P3 Bulletin also marks a notable milestone in the city's water supply modernization program.

FPL's announced grid upgrades for Broward County, including overhead-to-underground line conversion and continued deployment of smart grid technology, are documented as ongoing as of the time of research, with the 2024 hurricane season performance figures representing the most recently available impact data.

Utility billing for water and wastewater service is administered by the City of Fort Lauderdale's Finance Department. The City's billing pages document online account management, automatic payment plans, and credit and debit card payment processing through a third-party processor. That processor charges fees ranging from $1.95 for smaller transactions to 2.95% of the payment amount, costs that the City passes through rather than absorbs.

Oversight of utility rates and major infrastructure contracts rests with the Fort Lauderdale City Commission, which operates under a city commission form of government. The September 12, 2025 rate approval illustrates the Commission's role as the governing body for utility policy decisions. The Utility Services division, operating under Public Works, handles the technical and operational dimensions of service delivery.

Fort Lauderdale's regional utility role means that residents of Wilton Manors, Oakland Park, Port Everglades, sections of Tamarac, and at least the southern portion of Lauderdale-By-The-Sea — which the Lauderdale-By-The-Sea municipal website confirms draws water from Fort Lauderdale's system — depend on Fort Lauderdale's infrastructure decisions, even though their billing and service relationships may pass through their own municipal governments. Active public notices for sewer lateral inspections in Dolphin Isles, Central Beach, and Lauderdale Beach, as well as the Idlewyld undergrounding project, represent the points at which ongoing utility capital work directly affects specific neighborhoods.