Madison Utilities Board nixes new vote on fluoride in water

MADISON — The Madison Utilities Board declined to take a new vote after their controversial decision to discontinue adding fluoride to the city’s water supply.  

At Monday night’s meeting, board member Connie Spears put forth a motion for a new vote.  

“After weeks of receiving emails and public comments from Madison Utilities customers, I made a motion to rescind the vote to discontinue fluoridation of our drinking water,” Spears said. “The motion died due to the lack of a second.”  

Spears, who is also a city council member, then attempted to delay the implementation of the decision from June 16 to the end of September.  

“I then moved to pause the discontinuation until Sept. 30, to allow for the gathering of more data on employee safety, plant renovations pricing, customer input and rate implications,” she said. “Board Chairman Tatum seconded the motion, but the motion failed in a 3-2 roll call vote.”

The utility’s original decision to halt adding fluoride to the city’s water supply took many by surprise, including City Council members. An April City Council meeting saw a number of residents speak for and against the measure; two subsequent Madison Utilities Board meetings saw the same.  

A clear majority, nearly two-to-one, spoke publicly against the utility’s move in the city council meeting, citing overall public health. More than a half-dozen area pediatric dentists penned a letter to the board sharing their “grave concerns.”

“The pediatric dental community fears that without a fluoridated water supply, we will surely see a significant rise in dental problems for the children of our community. This will cause difficulty with keeping up our ability to deliver timely care,” read the letter.

The dentists maintained fluoride supplementation has been shown repeatedly to be one of the most effective and equitable public health measures for complete oral health.

Residents who spoke out against the decision also criticized the utility company for making a decision affecting thousands of customers with no public input. Spears said she is working to ensure that doesn’t happen again.  

“I also requested that the board develop a policy which would require a public hearing, in addition to following the state prescribed procedure, as was done for the fluoride vote, before any vote on adding or subtracting additives from the drinking water supply,” she said.

“While employee safety is a priority, so is listening to our customers. I hope that we can do a better job in the future.”