Reclaimed Water in Titusville

Reclaimed water in Titusville is wastewater that the city has treated at one of its two water reclamation plants and piped back out, on its own network, for lawn irrigation and commercial cooling towers.

The city spells out the difference from grey water at the top of its service page: grey water is untreated wastewater from sinks, showers and tubs, while reclaimed water is treated sewage (City of Titusville reclaimed water service page). Sewage arrives at the Blue Heron or the Osprey plant, is treated there to near drinking water quality, and then leaves through a separate distribution system to be reused for irrigation. The same page limits its use to irrigation and commercial cooling towers.

The Titusville reclaimed lines run separately from the drinking water mains, and a property on reclaimed service still has drinking water connections, which the city FAQ covers under the backflow rule further down this guide. The city calls reclaimed water an accessory service and bills it through its own customer classes and a monthly fee per ERC.

The reclaimed system belongs to the Water Reclamation Branch of the Public Works Department, mailing address 4800 Deep Marsh Road, phone 321-567-3891 (City of Titusville Water Reclamation Branch page). Billing questions go to Customer Service and Utility Billing at 321-383-5791, the number printed on the rates page (City of Titusville reclaimed water rates and fees page). For drinking water, sewer service and starting a utility account, the Titusville water and sewer guide covers the potable side.

Two city plants, the Blue Heron and the Osprey, produce Titusville reclaimed water; both run around the clock and use advanced wastewater treatment.

The Titusville Water Reclamation Division of Public Works operates and manages both plants, and the city describes them as 24-hour facilities whose advanced treatment brings wastewater to a standard high enough for reuse such as irrigation (Water Reclamation Branch). The Florida Department of Environmental Protection regulates them, and the plants supply data to the St. Johns River Water Management District, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers.

The Blue Heron facility design page lists the plant's effluent disposal as reuse and wetlands (City of Titusville Blue Heron facility design page).

The Blue Heron Wetland Treatment System is a flow-through system of seven cells (one pond cell, three deep marsh cells and three shallow marsh cells) that uses aquatic plants to strip nutrients and drains by gravity to the Addison Canal, a tributary of the St. Johns River (City of Titusville Blue Heron Water Reclamation Plant and Wetlands page). The wetland was designed to treat up to 6.75 million gallons per day, with an average detention time of about 60 days and a minimum of 14 days. It is listed on the Great Florida Birding Trail and is open to the public Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.; visitors sign in at the administrative office, complete a liability waiver and stay in their cars, with no walking or jogging.

Titusville reclaimed water customers in classes A, AM, B and CM pay a monthly maintenance and replacement fee of $8 per ERC, and the number of ERCs depends on the service or meter size.

The rates page sorts users into five classes: Class A for detached single-family homes, Class AM for multi-family residential facilities, Class B for office, commercial, industrial and warehousing facilities, Class C for public areas, parks and rights-of-way, and Class CM for community irrigation systems where one reclaimed connection serves more than one property (City of Titusville reclaimed water rates and fees page).

A second Titusville charge depends on sewer service. Users connected to the city sanitary sewer system pay no standby or user charge. All users except Class C who are not connected to the city sewer pay a monthly standby or user charge of $9 on top of the maintenance fee, which the city page gives as a total of $17 per month (reclaimed water rates and fees).

The standby charge shows up in the city budget. In the FY2026 adopted budget, the Water and Sewer System fund lists reuse standby charge revenue of $250,881 actual in FY2023, $239,242 actual in FY2024, $273,000 in the FY2025 revised budget and $296,000 adopted for FY2026 (City of Titusville FY2026 Adopted Budget).

Titusville reclaimed water follows the same watering days and hours as city water and private wells, so a sprinkler on reclaimed water runs only on the address-based irrigation days and never from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

City Code Sec. 21-63 says reclaimed water customers who use the water for landscape irrigation may do so only under the landscape irrigation schedules and their exceptions, and it counts a system as reclaimed even when it is supplemented from another source during peak demand (Titusville Code of Ordinances, Chapter 21, Article II). The city FAQ answers the common question directly: the irrigation restrictions apply to city potable water, well water and reclaimed water (City of Titusville FAQ).

The city Irrigation Restrictions page posts a spring and summer schedule of Saturday and Wednesday for odd-numbered residential addresses, Sunday and Thursday for even-numbered residential addresses, and Tuesday and Friday for commercial and non-residential addresses, with no watering between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. (City of Titusville Irrigation Restrictions page). The same page says the days change every fall and spring with the clock change. The Titusville lawn watering guide covers the winter schedule, exceptions and fines in full.

The Titusville service page adds a practical check for customers who turn on a valve and find nothing: it asks whether it is the right watering day and the right watering time before reporting a problem (reclaimed water service page).

Yes: every Titusville property served with reclaimed water must have a backflow prevention assembly on all drinking water connections, fire services included.

The city FAQ states the rule and explains the device: a backflow prevention assembly is an approved, testable device that uses valves to keep polluted or contaminated water from reversing direction and flowing back into the water system (City of Titusville FAQ on backflow). The FAQ names two kinds of backflow. Backsiphonage happens when a drop in water pressure creates suction that can pull a contaminant into the drinking water distribution system, for example during a main break or firefighting; backpressure is the other type.

The Titusville FAQ also says which device is required is decided by Public Works Field Operations, and that the Public Works Field Operations Division is responsible for testing and maintaining backflow assemblies. The FAQ lists six basic devices, from an air gap to a vacuum breaker assembly, and says the device used depends on the degree of hazard the type of service presents.

Titusville reclaimed water is an accessory service, so service stops when supply runs short or the water does not meet standards, until supply or quality is restored.

The service page says interruptions can occur because the water is not necessary for basic health and safety; if supply becomes limited or quality does not meet standards, service is discontinued until there is enough water or it meets standards again (City of Titusville reclaimed water service page). The Florida Department of Environmental Protection sets those standards, and the page gives turbidity, the cloudiness of the water, as an example: if turbidity exceeds the standard, the water cannot be distributed. During an interruption, the page says, the primary goal is to restore the quality of the reclaimed water so it meets standards.

Money for the network appears in the FY2026 to FY2030 capital plan. The FY2026 adopted budget lists project WR2405 Reuse System Improvements with $100,000 in FY2026 and a plan total of $1,618,000 as printed, alongside WR2401 Blue Heron Wastewater Treatment Plant improvements and WR2404 Osprey Wastewater Treatment Plant improvements (City of Titusville FY2026 Adopted Budget, capital plan).

Last verified: October 21, 2026, with fresh reads of the city reclaimed water service and rates pages, the Water Reclamation Branch page, the Blue Heron design and wetland pages, the backflow and irrigation answers in the city FAQ, Code Sec. 21-63, the Irrigation Restrictions page and the reuse lines of the FY2026 adopted budget.