Reclaimed Water in Melbourne — Melbourne, Florida

Melbourne's Public Works and Utilities Department runs a reclaimed water system that takes domestic wastewater, gives it advanced treatment, filtration and high-level disinfection, and pipes it back out for irrigation and a short list of other non-drinking uses. The city's Reclaimed Water page, read in October 2026, says Melbourne has been distributing reclaimed water for 30 years and that its customers recycle an average of 2.2 million gallons of water a day.

The customer list on that Melbourne page is weighted toward large irrigators: both city golf courses, Crane Creek Reserve and the course the page still calls Mallards Landing, Orlando-Melbourne International Airport, 5 local parks, 2 high schools, and more than 1,000 commercial and single-family properties. The city golf page now lists the second course as Harbor City Golf Course on Lake Washington Road, formerly Mallards Landing Golf Course, while Crane Creek Reserve Golf Course is on West New Haven Avenue.

The supply starts at Melbourne's two regional plants, described on the Water Reclamation page. The David B. Lee Water Reclamation Facility serves the north side of the city with a permitted treatment capacity of 6 million gallons per day, and the Grant Street Water Reclamation Facility serves the south with a permitted capacity of 5.5 million gallons per day. Together they treat wastewater from more than 29,000 households and businesses across a service area of about 45 square miles, mostly inside Melbourne city limits.

The two Melbourne collection networks are built differently. Wastewater bound for David B. Lee travels mainly by force main, flowing by gravity to lift stations that pump it to the plant, while the Grant Street system is largely gravity mains feeding a master lift station at the plant. Both plants provide at least secondary treatment, and the city disposes of their effluent through a combination of deep well injection and reclaimed water distribution. Biosolids are stabilized with lime.

State rules frame the program. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection says it has built a comprehensive reuse program whose rules sit in Chapter 62-610 of the Florida Administrative Code, the framework under which Melbourne's treated effluent becomes irrigation water.

Availability depends on location. The first step for an existing home or business is to ask the city whether the property lies within the City of Melbourne reclaimed service area, by calling 321-608-5120 or emailing [email protected], according to the How to Get Reclaimed Water page. The city's Reclaimed Water Coordinator handles those questions and guides owners through connection. For new construction and redevelopment, a reclaimed connection is evaluated during Melbourne's Development Review Process.

A Melbourne property also has to fit the system. Service goes only to properties with an underground irrigation system that has permanently placed sprinkler heads, and color-coding rules apply to reclaimed irrigation piping. Any irrigation system tied to another water source must be completely disconnected before it is retrofitted, and further limits may apply where an on-site irrigation well stays active. Notification signs must be installed and maintained at every entrance to the property, certain setback distances apply between potable and reclaimed lines, and owners agree to follow the rules governing reclaimed use.

The connection itself follows a set order in Melbourne: a property and irrigation system audit, a service application with fees for installing the service and meter, correction of anything the audit found, the owner's connection from the reclaimed meter to the irrigation system, and finally a city cross-connection inspection and turn-on. An approved backflow prevention device is required on all potable water services to the property, and the city repeats the cross-connection inspection periodically after hookup under the cross-connection control program that Florida Administrative Code 62-555.360 requires of public water systems.

Melbourne charges an initial connection fee plus monthly charges based on the size of the meter needed for the irrigation system, and the city gives current amounts by phone at 321-608-5120 rather than on the How to Get page. The residential water and sewer Rate Table published by the city does not list a reclaimed rate. On savings, the city cites studies finding that 30% to 50% of residential water use goes to irrigation and says an average of 17% can be saved on monthly water bills when reclaimed water replaces drinking water for irrigation, which it puts at a potential $30 to $56 a month for an average Melbourne residential property.

The Melbourne Reclaimed Water page lists four approved uses: irrigating lawns and landscapes, filling decorative ponds and fountains, commercial water-cooled air conditioning systems, and construction site dust control. It lists far more exclusions. Reclaimed water is not used for drinking, bathing or cooking, not used to fill swimming pools, hot tubs or wading pools, not used in water toys or water play, not connected to household plumbing for toilet flushing, and not used to wash vehicles, sidewalks or driveways. Hose connections are prohibited unless extra security, such as a quick coupler, is installed.

Gardens get specific guidance on the city's Proper and Safe Use page. Under Florida criteria, produce irrigated with reclaimed water must be cooked, skinned, peeled or thermally processed before eating, or else watered by a method that keeps reclaimed water off the edible part. Melbourne lists citrus, guava, avocado, pineapple, banana, mango and watermelon as suited to direct irrigation, and tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, blueberries, grapes and herbs as needing drip, microspray or ridge and furrow methods.

No. Melbourne supplies reclaimed water around the clock, every day of the year, and the city states that it is not subject to the year-round restrictions on drinking water and well irrigation. Those limits, set by St. Johns River Water Management District rules and city ordinance and posted on Melbourne's Irrigation Schedule page, allow homes with odd-numbered addresses to water on Wednesdays and Saturdays and even-numbered addresses on Thursdays and Sundays during Daylight Saving Time, with no watering between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Reclaimed customers are still asked to use water wisely, and the Proper and Safe Use page asks them to check for broken or misdirected heads that spray onto pavement. Reclaimed leaks are reported to 321-608-5130 on weekdays or 321-255-4622 after hours.