01 What Happened

Fort Lauderdale’s Prospect Lake Clean Water Center is preparing to begin service in September 2026. The new facility will replace the roughly 70-year-old Fiveash Water Treatment Plant and is designed for 50 MGD of potable water. Project information identifies the Biscayne Aquifer as the raw-water source and nanofiltration plus ion exchange as core treatment technologies. The plant is also designed for Category 5 hurricane resilience.

02 Key Takeaways

  • 01 The new plant is rated at 50 MGD.
  • 02 NF and ion exchange replace the legacy lime-softening-centered process.
  • 03 Recovery, concentrate, resin management, energy and maintenance will drive long-term TCO.

03 Why It Matters

Fort Lauderdale is shifting from an aging lime-softening plant to a groundwater treatment train using pressurized multimedia filtration, stripping, nanofiltration and ion exchange.

For Biscayne Aquifer water, this approach can target natural organic color and selected dissolved contaminants without sending the entire flow through full reverse osmosis.

04 ATLAS Engineering View

The long-term engineering questions are NF recovery, concentrate management, membrane cleaning, resin exhaustion and regeneration, and blending. Because the project is structured as a 30-year P3, energy, chemicals and maintainability will matter as much as initial CAPEX.

05 Sources