SARASOTA CO SPECIAL UTIL DIST water quality, FL

At a glance

1 above the safety limit, 1 detection to watch

Galvanized lines treated as lead

Lead service lines

116 galvanized requiring replacement

EPA's Lead and Copper Rule Improvements treat galvanized service lines as lead, because galvanized iron pipe installed downstream of an old lead component absorbs and continues to release lead for years after the lead source is removed.

From the utility's published inventory · See details below
Detected (no safe amount)

Lead

0.0005 mg/L

Public health experts agree no amount of lead in drinking water is safe. Even low levels can affect children's brain development.

Most recent lead and copper test · See details below
No longer fluoridated (state ban)

Fluoride

No longer added

Florida SB 700 (Florida Farm Bill) bans adding fluoride to public water statewide (effective July 1, 2025); systems no longer add it. CDC's listing predates the ban. Naturally occurring fluoride is unaffected.

Per CDC My Water's Fluoride · See details below

Risk classification follows EPA's published values for safe drinking water, with caution and concern bands reviewed by a clinician. Past resolved violations do not influence this card. See methodology.

Lead service line inventory

Lead or galvanized-requiring-replacement service lines confirmed in this system

SARASOTA CO SPECIAL UTIL DIST reports 0 confirmed lead service lines, 116 galvanized requiring replacement, 99,711 non-lead, 0 unknown (total 99,827) in the EPA SDWIS service line inventory (2026Q1).

0 confirmed lead service lines
116 galvanized requiring replacement (LCRI treats these as lead)
0 unknown (0.0% of total)
99,711 confirmed non-lead (99.9%)
99,827 total service lines in the system

Why this is a health concern. A galvanized iron service line that was ever installed downstream of a historic lead component (a lead service line, a lead gooseneck connector, or lead solder) absorbed lead into its corrosion layer over decades. The pipe continues to release that accumulated lead into water for years after the upstream lead source is removed. That is why EPA's LCRI treats GRR lines as lead and requires their replacement on the same 10-year schedule as confirmed lead lines. Read our plain-English lead guide.

What to do if your service line might be lead

Ask your utility to check the service-line classification for your specific address. Many utilities provide a public address-lookup tool linked from the inventory page.
Get on the replacement queue. Under the LCRI, utilities must replace all lead and galvanized-requiring- replacement lines within 10 years (clock generally starts November 2027). Some prioritize requests.
Until the line is replaced: flush the tap 30 seconds after long stagnation, use cold water for drinking and cooking, and consider an NSF/ANSI 53 lead-rated tap filter.
Talk to your clinician about a blood lead test for anyone in the home, especially a pregnant person or a child under 6. Lead in drinking water guide.

Inventory data sourced from SARASOTA CO SPECIAL UTIL DIST ( retrieved May 24, 2026 ; curator confidence: high ). Confirmed against the original source automatically each month; see methodology.

Lead and copper test results

The most recent measurement per contaminant from EPA's Lead and Copper Rule sampling.

Why only lead and copper, and not arsenic, nitrate, or others?

EPA's bulk SDWIS download is the only nationwide per-system sample data they publish, and it only includes the Lead and Copper Rule table. Values for other regulated contaminants (TTHMs, nitrate, arsenic, etc.) appear on this page only when they trigger a violation. For the full per-system contaminant suite, see the utility's annual Consumer Confidence Report (link further down the page).

Most recent measurements per contaminant (Lead and Copper Rule) . Sorted by risk: concern first, then caution, then unrated, then safe.
Contaminant	Most recent	Date	Risk
Lead PB90	0.0005 mg/L	December 1, 2023	Detected (no safe level) Lead has no safe level (MCLG=0). LCR action level is 0.015 mg/L for the 90th-percentile sample; the LCRI (Oct 2024) lowers the action level to 0.010 mg/L effective Nov 2027. Caution at any detection above LOD; concern anchored to the future LCRI value (0.010 mg/L) for forward consistency. Learn more about Lead. Source.

Data from EPA SDWIS (Lead and Copper Rule sample table) , last refreshed May 24, 2026.

PFAS and emerging contaminants

This system was tested 215 times under EPA's latest PFAS monitoring program; 2 of the 30 chemicals tested were detected.

What is this testing program?

EPA's fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule cycle (UCMR 5, 2023 to 2025) required every public water system serving over 3,300 people to test for 29 per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) plus lithium; 30 chemicals in total. Most recent detection per chemical shown below.

Most recent UCMR 5 detection per contaminant . Sorted by risk: concern first, then caution, then unrated, then safe.
Contaminant	Most recent detection	Date	Risk
PFBS	3.6 ng/L	August 18, 2025	No federal limit EPA has not set a federal drinking-water limit for this contaminant. It is among the substances EPA is studying under the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR). See the guide for what the science currently says. Learn more about PFBS.
PFPeA	3.7 ng/L	August 18, 2025	No federal limit EPA has not set a federal drinking-water limit for this contaminant. It is among the substances EPA is studying under the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR). See the guide for what the science currently says. Learn more about PFPeA.

Tested but not detected (28 contaminants)

EPA tested for these substances and every sample was below the minimum reporting level. Absence of detection does not mean true zero; it means below the laboratory's quantitation threshold.

Data from EPA UCMR 5 (Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule) , last refreshed May 24, 2026.

Fluoride

Florida no longer adds fluoride to public water

Under Florida SB 700 (Florida Farm Bill), effective July 1, 2025, public water systems in Florida may not add fluoride to drinking water. Systems that previously adjusted fluoride have stopped. The CDC figures on this page are historical and describe fluoridation before the ban; naturally occurring fluoride in source water is unaffected.

Florida Senate, SB 700

Per CDC My Water's Fluoride (pre-ban)

Before Florida banned it, SARASOTA CO SPECIAL UTIL DIST added fluoride to its drinking water. It no longer does.

Under Florida SB 700 (Florida Farm Bill), effective July 1, 2025, no public water system in Florida may add fluoride. CDC's My Water's Fluoride listing below predates the ban and has not been updated for it. Naturally occurring fluoride in the source water is unaffected; the utility's annual water quality report has the latest measured concentration.

Source: CDC My Water's Fluoride, listed under SARASOTA CO SPECIAL UTIL DIST (Sarasota County). Verify on CDC's site .

Area context (before the ban)

Sarasota County, FL (2020 data)

Community water systems: 3 of 14 added fluoride (pre-ban)
Population on fluoridated water: 225,173 of 342,398 (65.8%)

Florida statewide (2020 data)

Population on fluoridated water: 14,886,493 of 18,952,021 (78.5%)
Community water systems that added fluoride (pre-ban): 300 of 1,597

Data from CDC My Water's Fluoride (per-system status) , last refreshed May 19, 2026.

Data from CDC Water Fluoridation Reporting System (state and county aggregates) , last refreshed May 16, 2026.

Compliance history

EPA-recorded violations against this system over the last 5 years.

How to read this section

Health-based violations are when a measured limit was exceeded; the measured concentration is shown alongside the EPA federal limit where SDWIS published it. Monitoring and reporting items are paperwork issues (missed sample dates, late filings) that do not themselves indicate unsafe water.

Clean record

No violations on file for this system in the last 5 years.

Data from EPA SDWIS (violation records) , last refreshed May 24, 2026.

Where to see every contaminant this utility tested for

EPA's bulk SDWIS dataset gives MyTapWater.us per-system measured values for lead and copper, plus violation records for everything else. To see every regulated contaminant this utility tested for in the past year (TTHMs, HAA5, nitrate, arsenic, fluoride, chromium, etc.) with measured values, read the utility's Consumer Confidence Report (CCR).

Every community water system is required by EPA to publish a CCR annually, by July 1, listing every contaminant they sampled, the measured value, the federal limit, and any health-based exceedances. Most utilities post the report online; some mail it with your bill.

How to find SARASOTA CO SPECIAL UTIL DIST's CCR:

Search the web for "SARASOTA CO SPECIAL UTIL DIST consumer confidence report" . The PDF is usually on the utility's own website.
Or call the utility directly. Their phone number is in the contact section below.

Compare nearby utilities by population served.

NORTH PORT UTILITIES
61k served · NORTH PORT
SARASOTA-CITY OF
55k served · SARASOTA
ENGLEWOOD WATER DIST
38k served · ENGLEWOOD
VENICE WATER DEPT CITY OF
31k served · VENICE
PLURIS-SOUTH GATE UTILITIES
16k served · SARASOTA

Contact this utility

Public administrative contact information for this water system, as filed with the EPA. Use this to ask about your service line, request your home's lead status, or report a water quality issue.

Administrator: MIKE MYLETT (SARASOTA COUNTY (CARLTON WTP))
Phone: 941-861-0501
Mailing address: 1001 SARASOTA CENTER BLVD
SARASOTA, FL 34240

Where this page's data comes from

Bundle released 2026-Q2, regenerated May 24, 2026. Each section above also shows its own source date so you can tell at a glance how fresh that part of the page is.

EPA SDWIS bulk download — last refreshed May 24, 2026 (system info, violations, lead and copper samples).
EPA UCMR 5 (Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule) — last refreshed May 24, 2026 (PFAS and lithium).
Lead service line inventory — last refreshed May 24, 2026 (from the utility's reported inventory).
CDC My Water's Fluoride — last refreshed May 19, 2026 (per-system Yes/No fluoridation status).
CDC Water Fluoridation Reporting System — last refreshed May 16, 2026 (state and county fluoridation aggregates).

Every value on this page is cross-verified before publication; read our methodology for the verification steps and corrections process.