Port St. Lucie Selects Contractor for $31.8M Water Plant to Head Off 2030 Shortage

Port St. Lucie residents faced the prospect of running dry. City officials warned that without major action, taps could run dry within four years.

The Port St. Lucie City Council selected Jacobs Engineering to design and build a new $31.8 million water treatment facility near the Tradition area. City officials say the project is the only thing standing between residents and mandatory water-use restrictions, development freezes, and potential service disruptions before the decade is out.

The math is stark. Port St. Lucie's Utility Systems Department projects the city will exhaust its current water production capacity by 2030. The South Florida Water Management District went further, identifying Port St. Lucie as the only system in the Upper East Coast Planning Area incapable of meeting projected demands through 2045 — a designation that underscores how urgently the city's growth has outpaced its infrastructure.

The new Discovery Water Treatment Facility will use advanced reverse osmosis technology to produce between 10 and 20 million gallons of clean drinking water daily, more than doubling current production capacity. The system is engineered to eventually scale to 30 to 40 million gallons per day as the city continues to expand, according to public documents.

City officials spelled out the consequences of inaction plainly: water-use restrictions, emergency surcharges driving up utility bills, development moratoriums that could suppress property values, and the prospect of service disruptions during high-demand periods — a scenario familiar to any Treasure Coast homeowner who has watched summer afternoon demand stress local systems.

The project timeline is designed to beat the deadline. New water storage tanks are scheduled to come online by June 2027. The plant's first four million gallons per day of new capacity is expected by December 2028, with full 10-million-gallon daily output reached by May 2029, officials said. Construction is set to begin in 2027.

The project moves next into a permitting phase with state and federal agencies. The city has indicated community meetings will be held to address construction impacts before design is finalized.

The city has not announced specific rate impacts for utility customers.

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