CLEARFIELD COUNTY, Pa. (WTAJ) — Proposed changes to the water service in Clearfield County, but some residents are fighting back.
The debate is over fluoride, a common but costly additive that’s good for dental health. The Clearfield Water Authority is making final plans for a new water treatment facility and a point that the community is disagreeing on is whether or not they’ll be removing fluoride from their drinking water.
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” Dr. Jamie Long, A dentist in Clearfield County, said.
The authority is planning to move to the Montgomery Run Water Treatment Plant, but it hasn’t been redone in over 30 years. The fluoride that gets added to the drinking water can be costly and that’s one side of the argument.
Pa. taxpayers overcharged by $7 million for Medicaid prescription benefits “The equipment that’s needed to feed the fluoride is about $50,000. So initially you know we would add about 50,000 to the project and then about 10,000 a year to actually feed the fluoride,” Jim Balliet, an Authority Engineer for Gwin, Dobson & Foreman Inc. said.
The other side argues that the additive does good for the community as it helps young children’s teeth.
“The fluoridation system is just an immensely beneficial way to prevent decay. It’s very equitable. You know everybody has access to it. Children who can’t make the decision for themselves to not have that you know. It’s depriving them of a lifelong benefit of basically just growing their teeth stronger from the beginning,” Long said.
The authority added that while it may do good they’re worried about paying to add it to water that the community won’t even be drinking.
“The average consumer uses about 100 gallons a day and less than one gallon is actually consumed — so we are feeding fluoride to a lot of water that is not being used for consumption and that fluoride ultimately ends up, you know, in the wastewater system and ultimately in the streams,” Balliet said.
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It’s not a decision that has been made yet, but it is one that will impact the community either way.
The water authority has until the end of September to make a decision.
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