- March 10, 2026
The Daytona Beach City Commission is considering banning toilet to tap water in Daytona Beach.
An ordinance introducing the ban of reclaimed blackwater — recycled and treated wastewater — for potable water was introduced at the March 4 City Commission meeting, though the item was not discussed by the commissioners at the time. Instead, the first public hearing and vote on the ban will be at the March 18 meeting.
The ordinance would also prohibit injecting treated blackwater into the aquifer. If the Commission approves the ordinance, it would then go before voters on the November ballot.
A similar charter amendment prohibiting blackwater was killed by the Volusia County Council on Feb. 17. That charter amendment likewise would have prohibited recycled wastewater from being injected into the aquifer and used as drinking water.
But that charter amendment would only have applied to Volusia County’s utility service, not areas served by local municipalities and their utilities.
Eric Smith, Daytona Beach’s deputy utilities director, said using potable reuse is not in the city’s 20-year outlook.
Underground injection is highly regulated in Florida, Smith said, with strict treatment requirements, extensive monitoring requirement and oversight and control of well locations and constriction. This is done through the Aquifer Protection Program.
“Its sole purpose is to protect the drinking water and the drinking water sources,” Smith said.
Reclaimed water, as defined by Florida Statutes, is water that has received at least secondary treatment and basic level disinfection. Smith said Dayton Beach treats to advanced wastewater treatment standards.
The city’s process, according to a memo Smith included with the ordinance in the agenda, removes high levels of nutrients, specifically nitrogen and phosphorus, along with any remaining solids and pathogens. The city has been treating its influent wastewater to these standards since the late 1990s, the memo said.
“This is an important distinction to make as the water produced by the treatment process no longer contains “blackwater” but instead meets the definitions of reclaimed water,” the memo said.
The city currently uses reclaimed water at golf courses, for landscaping, irrigation in both residential and commercial areas, and wetland rehydration at Bennett Swamp.
In 2025, Daytona Beach produced an average of 14.11 million gallons per day of reclaimed water. An average of 8.41 MGD was discharged into the Halifax River and 5.7 MGD was reused.
Smith said Daytona Beach is working to meet new reclaimed water regulations that require municipalities to eliminate non-beneficial surface water discharges by 2032 — the 8.41 MGD the city discharges into Halifax River.
To meet those requirements, the city will need to find another use for the reclaimed water, and some of the programs are cost-prohibitive.
This ordinance would ban three options to eliminate reclaimed water discharge.
“What we want to make clear is that if one of those options is found to be cost effective,” Smith said, “eliminating it through this ordinance could lead to the need for a rate increase in the future if a less cost-effective option is chosen.”
