Jamestown City Council has approved moving forward with the removal of fluoride from the city’s water.
Jamestown Water Superintendent Jacob Burke said in the 1970s, many cities across the nation added fluoride to their water to provide a form of dental care to citizens. Burke said fluoride has been talked about more recently, as over the past few years, studies have shown the health risks of fluoride.
“We kept getting more calls about it,” Burke said. “We had a public hearing and had an amazing turnout for the public hearing and most of our customers were for removing it.”
Burke said currently, the water plant is still feeding fluoride into the water. Burke said the city’s water plant will stop feeding fluoride into the water beginning sometime in August.
“The fluoride is added into the clear well of the plant, so after the water is treated, it’s added right before it goes out of the plant,” Burke said. “So when the time comes, we will just shut the pumps off, just quit feeding it, and then just let it dissipate out of the system on its own.”
Burke said fluoride is very dangerous to handle as it is very corrosive. Burke said fluoride is not a necessity in city water.
“My thoughts on getting rid of it were just for the safety of my operators,” Burke said. “That was my only, really issue with it, you know. If we didn’t need to handle it, I didn’t want ot handle it.”
Burke said the removal will not have any impact on the quality of the water. Burke said most people will likely not even notice the difference.
