Palm Bay Utilities — Palm Bay, Florida

Palm Bay Utilities is the City of Palm Bay Utilities Department (PBUD), which runs as an Enterprise Fund directly under city government with City staff handling management and administration (About Palm Bay Utilities).

That status shapes how the department pays for itself. PBUD receives no money from property taxes and runs solely on the revenue its customers pay for service (City of Palm Bay). Its rates are set to cover the cost of operating, maintaining, repairing and financing the water and sewer systems, the city reviews the department's finances each budget cycle, and a formal rate study runs every five years or as warranted. Palm Bay adjusts utility rates annually on October 1st, and the current residential schedule is effective October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027.

Inside city government, PBUD reports through the City Manager. The Utilities Department sits on the list of departments overseen by City Manager Matthew Morton, alongside Public Works, Building and Growth Management (City Manager). Day-to-day customer work runs through Utilities Customer Care at the City Hall Annex, while technical work on pipes and plants runs through the Utilities Engineering Division at (321) 952-3410 (Engineering).

PBUD serves water, wastewater and reclaimed water customers in Palm Bay and the neighboring Town of Malabar, but not every Palm Bay street has city lines (About Palm Bay Utilities).

The size of the system is set out on the department's own operations page. The Palm Bay water system serves over 34,000 accounts and covers approximately 44 square miles (Water, Wastewater and Reclaimed Water). The department states that its service area covers a large portion of Palm Bay but that some areas of the city have no readily available water or sewer service (Service Availability). PBUD directs anyone unsure about a parcel to its Interactive Map, where a full address shows whether water or sewer lines are in place.

Homes on septic are outside the utility's regulatory reach: the Palm Bay utilities landing page states that septic systems are regulated by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) (City of Palm Bay Utilities). Customers in the Town of Malabar and outside city limits pay a separate rate column. For the October 1, 2026 to September 30, 2027 rate year, the monthly water base facility charge on a 5/8 x 3/4 inch meter is $16.44 inside Palm Bay and $18.08 for Outside City and Town of Malabar customers (Residential Rates and Charges).

Palm Bay's drinking water is groundwater drawn from city wells in the shallow surficial aquifer and the deeper Floridan aquifer, then treated by lime softening and reverse osmosis and chlorinated before distribution (About Palm Bay Utilities).

Two City of Palm Bay pages describe the same well field with different numbers, and neither has been reconciled by the city. The About Palm Bay Utilities page says water comes from forty-two wells, drawn from the Floridan Aquifer at a depth of 850 feet and surficial aquifers at 35 to 85 feet, feeding two water treatment plants that treat approximately 7 million gallons of water per day. The more detailed operations page lists approximately 41 active raw water wells, three water treatment plants and surficial wells of 80 to 150 feet (Water, Wastewater and Reclaimed Water). The table below sets the two side by side.

The operations page names the plants. The North Regional Water Treatment Facility, at the North Regional Utilities Campus, combines a Lime-Softening Treatment Plant that can treat up to 10 million gallons per day with a 1.5 MGD reverse osmosis plant, and it holds a 100 million gallon Aquifer Storage Recovery well for drought or peak demand (City of Palm Bay Utilities). The South Regional Water Treatment Facility is a 4.0 MGD reverse osmosis plant built in 2006 to take load off the north plant and serve southern Palm Bay; it sits on a 108 acre site, draws from three Floridan wells and can be expanded to 10 million gallons per day.

Storage and fire protection complete the Palm Bay system: three ground storage tanks, one 0.5 MG elevated tank, a 1.5 million gallon storage and repump station, 2,886 fire hydrants and more than 34,000 water meters, according to the same PBUD operations page.

Palm Bay's sewage goes to two city treatment facilities on opposite sides of Troutman Boulevard with a combined capacity of 5.2 million gallons per day (Water, Wastewater and Reclaimed Water).

The plant on the west side of Troutman Boulevard is a 1.2 MGD water reclamation facility using extended aeration, final filtration and disinfection, and its effluent goes to a public access reuse system. The plant across the street on the east side is a 4 MGD conventional activated sludge system that sends its effluent to a Class I Deep Injection Well. That well is 3,009 feet deep and permitted for 5.0 million gallons per day of effluent disposal; the city reports operating it at approximately 52 percent of that permitted capacity. Digested solids are hauled to a permitted residuals site and used as a soil supplement. The About Palm Bay Utilities page gives a separate daily flow figure, approximately 3.6 million gallons of wastewater treated per day (About Palm Bay Utilities).

Reclaimed water is a small but growing part of PBUD. About 11 miles of reclaimed distribution lines serve several businesses, residents and a local park for irrigation, and the department is building a new water reclamation plant for the southern portion of Palm Bay. Reclaimed customers follow neighborhood irrigation schedules; the city posts separate schedules for Sandy Pines Preserve and Country Club Estates and warns that watering outside the assigned time can bring penalties (PBUD). Reclaimed water in Palm Bay is for lawns, landscapes and ponds only, never for drinking, pools or washing driveways.

Palm Bay Utilities publishes an Annual Drinking Water Quality Report, and the 2026 edition covers testing performed on the system during 2025 (Water Quality Report).

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requires every public water system to give customers that report each year. Utilities Customer Care at 120 Malabar Road SE can supply reports from previous years, going back up to 10 years, by phone at (321) 952-3420 or email (Water Quality Report). Questions about the testing itself go to the Water Treatment Superintendent at (321) 952-3410 (Water, Wastewater and Reclaimed Water).

On lead, PBUD states that the City of Palm Bay does not own any lead pipes, while noting that private service lines on the customer side of the meter are outside its ownership. The city runs free tap sampling at Palm Bay homes and buildings every three years, and the last cycle was done in September of 2023 (Lead Reduction Program). An interactive map of the city's service line inventory accompanies that program.

Pressure losses from a broken main or a planned repair trigger a Boil Water Notice. In Palm Bay a small outage is handled with printed notices hung on the doors of each affected home or business, while a shutdown affecting 150 customers or more is announced through media releases and the city's e-notification list (Boil Water Notices).

Ownership of the pipe decides who fixes a leak. PBUD is responsible for the water meter and the line from the meter box to the city main, usually under the right of way; the property owner is responsible for the service line from the meter box across the yard to the house, including leaks (City of Palm Bay Utilities).

Palm Bay Utilities Customer Care is in the City Hall Annex Building at 120 Malabar Road SE, Palm Bay, FL 32907, and its main phone is (321) 952-3420 (Contact Utilities Customer Care).

Utilities Customer Care keeps a Thursday schedule that differs from the rest of the week: Monday through Wednesday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Thursday 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Friday 8:00 a.m. to 5 p.m. The office also takes email at ucs@palmbayfl.gov and has an online Report an Issue form (Utilities Customer Care).

Builders and engineers deal with a different part of PBUD. The Utilities Engineering Division provides technical guidance, inspection and project coordination for water, sewer and reclaimed projects in the Palm Bay service area and distributes the PBUD Developer's Guide, 2014 Edition, and a Policies, Procedures and Standards Handbook (Engineering). Copies of the Water, Wastewater and Water Conservation and Reuse master plans are also requested through Utilities Engineering (About Palm Bay Utilities).

PBUD also trains future operators. It supports the Academy of Environmental Water Technology at Heritage High School, a program that prepares students for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection Level C water operator test, and its summer internship mailing address is 250 Osmosis Drive SE, Palm Bay 32909 (Education and Outreach). The department's landing page notes that Utilities Customer Care is moving to a new utility billing system (City of Palm Bay Utilities).

Last verified: October 12, 2026, on the City of Palm Bay Utilities Department website.