Becky Gillette – One of only two water districts left in the state that has refused to fluoridate water because of concerns about adverse health effects, the Ozark Mountain Regional Public Water Authority (OMRPWA), plans to appeal all the way to the Arkansas Supreme Court to prevent fluoridation opposed by 87 percent of their customers.
At a hearing last week in Little Rock between officials from OMRPWA and a three-member committee of the Arkansas Board of Health, was an order and notice concerning a proposed penalty to be levied against OMRPWA for failure to comply with 2011’s Act 197. The act mandates all water districts with more than 5,000 customers to add fluoride to public water.
Fluoride proponents say it helps prevent children from having cavities. Opponents point to numerously scientific studies that indicate harmful health effects including dental fluorosis and decreased I.Q. in children, thyroid problems in adults, and harm to diabetics and cancer patients. Studies have shown fluoridation chemicals are contaminated with lead, arsenic and aluminum.
“We appeared and explained why we do not believe Act 197 applies to this water authority because we are a wholesale distributor with eighteen customers,” said Chris Lawson, an attorney with Friday, Eldridge and Clark in Fayetteville representing OMRPWA. “ACT 197 applies to water systems that supply water to 5,000 or more customers. We argue this act does not apply to us.”
OMRPWA, which covers Boone, Newton and Searcy Counties, was formed to remove fluoride from the water of individual water systems because fluoride of serious health problems. People went to the expense to form the district after being warned of the dangers of fluoride, which occurs naturally in that area. So the different water system providers are now unhappy with the state telling them to put fluoride back in the water.
Lawson said they argued that the application of Act 197 to a wholesale water distributor is unconstitutional because it is vague in its definition of various terms including parent system, consecutive system and water customers in general.
Andy Anderson, chairman of OMRPWA, testified about numerous complaints he received from the water authority’s customers about the possibility of adding fluoride to the water supply. This information included studies showing adverse health effects, and communications opposing fluoridation from retail water customers in various towns in the area.
After the hearing, a three-member committee of the Board of Health retired into executive session and voted to uphold recommendations of the staff that the water authority was not in compliance with Act 197. The next step is for the full Board of Health to hear arguments at its next quarterly meeting in late July.
If, as expected, the vote goes against them again, OMRPWA plans to appeal to the Circuit Court of Newton County for relief.
“I hope we can make some progress,” Lawson said. “If we don’t receive relief there, we would appeal to the Arkansas Supreme Court. We are committed to exhausting every appeal.”
Jeannie Burlsworth, chair of Secure Arkansas, a statewide group that has lobbied against the fluoride mandate, said no one in the area wants fluoridation.
“Some of the rural communities have vowed to not pay their bills, go back on well water or go to another water source if they are forced to drink poison,” Burlsworth, who attended the hearing, said. “Nobody in that area feels there should be a fluoride mandate. It is absolutely ridiculous the expense that Ozark Mountain is going to incur on having to get an attorney. They will incur thousands and thousands of dollars in expenses that need not be spent.”
Act 197 passed the legislature after Delta Dental Foundation offered to pay the costs of fluoridation equipment. But if districts don’t follow the contract with DDF, they have to repay the money. At the hearing in Little Rock, OMRPWA asked why they have to take money from DDF for a project they don’t want.
Burlsworth said another point brought out at the meeting is where Anderson lives, Diamond City, the water system has only two children. She said it is a retirement community with a lot of elderly people who could be harmed by fluoride in the water.
The other fluoride district holdout is Madison County Regional Water District (MCRWD). Rudy Box, water operator with that district, said they had a hearing before the Board of Health in November 2015 where a penalty was recommended against them. The district appealed that decision to the Board of Health and then had another hearing in January that upheld that finding.
“Now we have appealed it to the Madison County District Court and are waiting for an answer on our appeal,” Box said. “We will hold out as long as we can. There are just two districts left in the state that haven’t fluoridated.”
Box said he brought it to the attention of the Board of Health that at most, only about 109,000 gallons per year are consumed by children supposedly benefited by fluoridated water. He said it makes no sense to add fluoride to all 1.2 billion gallons produced at the plant in a year when so little goes to the targeted population.
“It is not a good thing just if you look at it from the financial viewpoint,” he said. “We would be better off with children brushing with fluoridated toothpaste or getting topical applications in the dentist office. But the Board of Health is not interested in any of the arguments against fluoridation. Their opinion is it has been made law and we are going to do it.”
Residents of Eureka Springs fought fluoridation for 30 years, and the city voted it down twice. But fluoride opponents were unable to convince the Carroll Boone Water District to not fluoridate. The board said it felt it had no choice but to follow the law. Fluoridation began in mid-summer of 2015.