What’s Actually in the Tap in CDD 15 (I Paid a Lab to Find Out)
A CDD 15 neighbor paid a lab to test kitchen tap water and found legal disinfection byproducts, hard water, and no lead or arsenic.
Every other porch conversation down here ends the same way: "So… is the water okay?"
I live in Edenfield, Village Community Development District 15. Our drinking water doesn't come from a lake with a fountain. It comes from Gibson Place Utilities, a private utility serving Districts 15 and 16. They pull groundwater from wells drilled into the Lower Floridan Aquifer — limestone hundreds of feet down — then chlorinate it and send it to the house. Irrigation is a separate system. The stuff in your kitchen sink is the aquifer water.
That still didn't answer the porch question. So I ran a Tap Score Advanced City Water Test on the kitchen faucet. Untreated. Mid-September 2026.
The scorecard
Overall Tap Score: 71 / 99
Health: 62 (four flags)
Aesthetics: 99 (no color, taste, or smell flags)
Plumbing: 98
The four flags are all the same family: disinfection byproducts. Chlorine meets leftover organic stuff in the water and makes trihalomethanes.
| What they found | My number | EPA legal cap |
|---|---|---|
| Total THMs | 42.7 ppb | 80 ppb |
| Chloroform | 29.6 ppb | part of that 80 |
| Bromodichloromethane | 9.9 ppb | part of that 80 |
| Dibromochloromethane | 3.16 ppb | part of that 80 |
Legal. About half the federal limit. Tap Score still waves a flag because their health guidelines are much stricter than the EPA's. Lifetime exposure at these levels is the conversation, not "don't brush your teeth tomorrow."
Everything else on a 111-analyte panel was either not detected or boring in a good way. No lead. No arsenic. No iron. No fluoride. No nitrate. The whole VOC list came back empty. Copper was 0.042 ppm. Sodium was 5.68 ppm.
Hardness is the other story: 175–176 ppm, 10.2 grains per gallon. Spots on glass, a water heater that works a little harder. pH was 7.4. Langelier index was −0.453 — not a pipe-eating disaster, not a scale factory either.
This test did not include PFAS. Different kit. If that keeps you up, order that one separately.
What you can actually do about it
A pitcher is a glass of water. It is not a shower, and hot showers off-gas chloroform into the air. If THMs are the thing you care about, the filter has to sit on the main line or at least on the kitchen plus the bathrooms you use.
Whole-house carbon (catalytic carbon + KDF) — treats every tap and shower, kills the chlorine taste. Doesn't soften 10-grain water.
Softener (salt or potassium) — soap works, spots fade, water heater lives longer. A modern metered unit regenerates when it needs to, not on a timer from 1998. Softeners do not remove THMs. Pair it with carbon or you solved the wrong problem.
Under-sink reverse osmosis — drinking and cooking water get the most thorough pass. Only that one faucet.
Do nothing — free. The water already meets the legal standard.
What matches this report: carbon on the whole house for the THMs and chlorine, softener if the spots and soap bother you, kitchen RO only if you want belt and suspenders.
Who actually does this work around here
Three names come up constantly in The Villages:
Pegasus Water — 352-748-7873, 326 Shopping Center Dr, Wildwood. Family-owned, about forty years in Florida water. Their four-stage system uses Centaur carbon, ion resin, KDF, and garnet, plus a softener that runs on salt or potassium. Google rating around 4.9 across hundreds of reviews. Locals mention same-day installs and the chlorine smell disappearing. They're a dealer, so the pitch leans toward their package — get a second quote.
Nova Filters — 352-566-2649, 5732 C Thomas Rd, Wildwood. Also family-owned, right here in The Villages. Their mainstay is a three-canister whole-house filter — two sediment stages plus coconut carbon — installed for roughly $500 to $700, which is a fraction of what the big systems cost. They've done over 17,000 homes in the area. They also sell softeners and RO. One honest caveat: some customers report changing filters twice a year instead of the once-a-year they were told, so ask about the real replacement schedule before you buy.
EcoWater of North Florida (formerly Sunshine Water Systems) — 352-401-1818, 3940 SE 45th Court, Ocala. Same shop that used to answer as Sunshine; they still cover The Villages. Factory-authorized EcoWater dealer for carbon filtration, softeners, RO, free in-home water tests, and salt delivery. They’ve been treating North Central Florida water since 1979 and post about a 4.8 Google rating. Good pick if you want a name-brand tank and factory parts rather than a custom dealer package — just know EcoWater quotes usually run higher than a three-canister filter, so get the installed price in writing before you book.
Get two or three quotes. Hand them the lab pages so nobody invents iron and sulfur you don't have. And if the tanks will be visible from the street, check your district ARC first — several Villages ARC manuals list softeners as items that can need an application if they're exterior.
One kitchen sample is one kitchen sample. Your neighbor two villages over may be on a different utility. Pull your own CCR from districtgov.org, or spend the three hundred bucks and stop guessing.
I did not come to Edenfield to become a water chemist. I came here to reboot. This was just so the next person who asks about the tap gets an answer that isn't "I heard somebody say."
Not affiliated with The Villages brand or developer. Not medical or legal advice. I'm a neighbor with a PDF.
