BOONE COUNTY, Ark. – The Ozark Mountain Regional Public Water Authority says it’s caught in the middle of a fluoride controversy in northern Arkansas.
The water district’s chairman says he disapproves of fluoridation and that a state mandate, requiring the practice, could end in litigation…
The OMRPWA was created to better serve 18 municipalities in northern part of the state, across Newton, Boone, Searcy and Marion Counties.
Anderson says some of the municipalities weren’t meeting water demands during peak seasons, and some were seen as having unsafe levels of natural fluoride.
The district now serves more than 22,000 residents, meaning fluoride–- at a level deemed safe by the Arkansas Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control – will have to be put back into the water…
… “If we resist that means they are probably going to sue us,” Anderson says, “we’re caught in the middle.”
Anderson says the board’s vote on whether or not to use fluoride, in July, has been postponed. He said the water district has been granted a six month extension by the Department of Health to make a decision…
