Water bills may soon get cheaper in Miami Gardens — and go up in 5 other cities (2025)

Lillie Barr doesn’t get why she pays so much for water. She doesn’t see why just down the road, in neighboring North Miami Beach, people pay less than she does for water from the very same water plant across town.

“It’s unfair,” said Barr, 77, grimacing at a recent $265 water bill that lay on the dining table.

That sentiment has been at the heart of a decade-long fight between neighboring cities North Miami Beach and Miami Gardens. The former provides water to the latter, and it levies a 25% surcharge for customers outside of North Miami Beach.

At the heart of the dispute is the Norwood Water Treatment Plant, which North Miami Beach purchased more than 70 years ago in what was then unincorporated Miami-Dade County and what is today Miami Gardens. The plant provides water to 175,000 Miami-Dade residents.

The historic spat, though, may soon be coming to an end. In Tallahassee, state senators voted on Wednesday to prohibit North Miami Beach from tacking the surcharge onto Miami Gardens residents’ water bills. Upon approval from the House and Gov. Ron DeSantis, both outcomes considered likely, Miami Gardens residents would see the additional 25% fee erased from their water bills.

But by eliminating the surcharge from Miami Gardens — a city where many of the 110,000 residents get water from the Norwood Plant — North Miami Beach warns that standard rates will go up for all of its customers throughout the region, including those in North Miami Beach. Other buyers include the residents of Bal Harbour, Aventura, Sunny Isles Beach and Golden Beach, all of whom would pay the increased rate while still on the hook for the 25% surcharge.

A tale of two cities?

For more than two decades, North Miami Beach has levied a 25% surcharge, the legal state limit, on all non-North Miami Beach purchasers of its water. That fee, says the city, pays for the water’s treatment and delivery and maintains the miles of pipes that shuttle water from the Norwood Plant to consumers as far away as Bal Harbour.

Speaking before a recent state Senate committee hearing on the matter, North Miami Beach Commissioner McKenzie Fleurimond implored senators to vote against the proposed bill, S.B. 202. The surcharge, he argued, ensures that all of the utility’s users contribute to its maintenance “in the same way that North Miami Beach residents do.”

The city argues that eliminating the fee would jeopardize critical long-term infrastructure upgrades. And scrapping the surcharge would amount to providing “a benefit without responsibility,” said North Miami Beach Mayor Michael Joseph.

Critics of the surcharge strongly disagree.

“It’s silliness,” retorted Miami-Dade County Commissioner and former Miami Gardens Mayor Oliver Gilbert. The referenced costs — maintenance, operations, service, etc. — are reflected in the utility rate, the rate that every customer pays for water, Gilbert argued, while the surcharge exists to extend water service to other cities.

But North Miami Beach never “extended” service to Miami Gardens because the plant, and the source from which it draws, is in Miami Gardens, continued Gilbert. That Miami Gardens residents have to pay the 25% surcharge is, in the commissioner’s eyes, “fundamentally unfair.”

Its elimination could come as a relief for people like Barr, 77, who recently paid nearly $300 for three months of water usage. And in Miami Gardens, where the median household income is about $60,000 — almost $20,000 less than the county median — that extra 25% stings.

Barr, a retired healthcare professional, lives with her adult son and daughter, both of whom are disabled, in a modest, cheerfully pink home. Though they get by on her monthly $2,000 Social Security check, money is tight. Barr says that if her utility bills were lower, she’d use the extra money to purchase a ramp so her son, who uses a wheelchair due to multiple sclerosis, could get in and out of the house on his own.

‘The most Miami fight ever’

The local water dispute made it to Tallahassee this year, with state lawmakers fast-tracking proposals in both the Senate and House.

State Sen. Shevrin Jones, whose constituencies include both Miami Gardens and North Miami Beach, championed the effort in the Senate, while state Rep. Felicia Robinson, who represents parts of Miami Gardens, led the effort in the House.

As originally written, the bill would have prohibited a municipality that owns a water or sewer utility located in another municipality from charging consumers in another municipality a water surcharge fee.

The muddled and relatively esoteric nature of the conflict led Sen. Thomas Leek of St. Augustine to at one point during the legislative session describe it as “the most Miami fight ever,” to laughter from the Senate Committee on Community Affairs’ other members.

Though already quite specific, that measure would’ve applied to a handful of other Florida localities, including a city east of Sarasota called Arcadia, part of Senate President Ben Albritton’s district. The bill was later pared back to only apply to North Miami Beach and Miami Gardens, at Jones’ suggestion.

“This does not mean that the operating municipality cannot charge up to a 25% surcharge for the other municipalities they serve,” Jones said. “They just cannot do so to the residents where the plant sits. Simply put, it’s taxation without representation.”

But of particular concern to North Miami Beach is the loss of surcharge revenue from “large commercial accounts” in Miami Gardens, namely Hard Rock Stadium, one of North Miami Beach’s larger individual clients. In a written statement, the city of North Miami Beach told the Herald that Hard Rock’s total water bill from March 2024 to March 2025 was roughly $400,000, meaning about $100,000 would be lost in annual surcharge revenue from the stadium. For comparison, North Miami Beach billed all customers in Miami Gardens $21.6 million for water from the Norwood plant in 2024.

What about everyone else?

While Miami Gardens residents might see their bills drop, the 110,000 residents in other cities that purchase water from North Miami Beach, including Bal Harbour, Aventura, Sunny Isles Beach and Golden Beach, will still be on the hook for the 25% surcharge.

What’s more: They, as well as North Miami Beach and Miami Gardens residents, are likely to end up paying higher water rates than before to make up for the lost revenue, roughly $5 million, that would’ve come from Miami Gardens paying the surcharge, North Miami Beach officials told the Herald.

Nevertheless, “this bill is about fairness,” argued Jones.

And for Miami Gardens residents like Barr, the prospect of a lower water bill, as well as a feeling of justice, would feel like a win.

“Why should we pay so much for water? I don’t understand,” she wondered.

This story was produced with financial support from supporters including The Green Family Foundation Trust and Ken O’Keefe, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners. The Miami Herald maintains full editorial control of this work.