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* Utility says it lacks ‘manpower or time’
* PUD to clarify its position in letter to commissioners at month's end
MOUNT VERNON — Five months after the Skagit County Board of Commissioners ordered the Skagit Public Utilities District to fluoridate its water within a year, the county and PUD have yet to agree on how that will be done.
Stating that the PUD would be busy managing several major projects of its own and hiring a new general manager, then-PUD General Manager Kenneth Kukuk sent the county commissioners a letter in June stating that the PUD “simply does not have the manpower or time” to build fluoridation facilities.
“While the PUD Commissioners are aware of your effort to ensure this project moves forward, it places an undue burden on the PUD to meet any mandate that might be set,” wrote Kukuk, who has since retired and was replaced by Dave Johnson in July.
The end of the same letter indicated that fluoridation facilities would be transferred to the PUD upon their completion. But on Thursday, a sit-down meeting between the PUD and county left that possibility up in the air.
Now Johnson says the three elected members of his Board of Commissioners have yet to decide if the PUD will take ownership of the facilities, which would include fluoridation injection equipment at Judy Reservoir and two tie-ins with the Anacortes water system. As a result of Thursday’s meeting, the PUD plans to send another letter to the county by month’s end that will clarify its position on ownership.
“They don’t want to be responsible for building the infrastructure, for paying for the infrastructure ... ,” said County Administrator Gary Rowe. “The only thing they recognize is that the commissioners have the authority to order the fluoridation, but they haven’t been a willing partner.”
Passed with a 2-1 vote by the county commissioners acting as the county Board of Health, the May resolution mandating fluoridation is subject to the availability of third-party funding. Though the Washington Dental Service Foundation has offered to pay for initial capital costs of approximately $1 million, the PUD is questioning whether it can legally accept money from a private organization.
“I suppose (the PUD has) some reluctance because we don’t want to do anything illegal or that’s not in the interest of our ratepayers,” PUD attorney Peter Gilbert said. Instead, the PUD has proposed that the county accept the foundation’s money.
But Rowe said Skagit County does not want to manage a water system.
“From the county’s perspective, we’re not in the water business,” Rowe said.
Some of the PUD’s resistance may be personal. Rowe said he’d gotten the impression that the PUD was offended by the county’s mandate. In addition, he said the PUD may not support the concept of fluoridation in general. The PUD, however, has long insisted that it neither supports nor opposes fluoridation.
“The PUD has taken a very neutral position toward fluoridation,” Johnson said. “If the county wants the fluoridation to occur, ... then the county can work with the third parties to obtain capital funding ... and manage the project.”
Meanwhile, a May 2008 deadline to begin fluoridation is looming. Per its May resolution, the county can penalize any person or entity $250 per day for stopping fluoridation by that date. But County Commissioner Ken Dahlstedt indicated that was not a preferred route for his board.
“I think the county will work with the PUD,” Dahlstedt said. “We’re certainly not wanting to have one public entity penalizing another.”
The fluoride debate has been a long, contentious one in Skagit County. In June 2005, a group of medical professionals first presented a proposal to fluoridate Skagit PUD’s water. Since then, several passionate public hearings have been held. In November 2006, a nonbinding advisory vote showed that 52 percent of those casting ballots favored fluoride.
* Franny White can be reached at 360-416-2148 or
4838
Posted by Irtnog on 
October 10, 2007 - 05:07 PM
While the deep pockets of Delta Dental (the backers of Washington Dental Service Foundation) will help front the funds for the forced fluoridation of Skagit’s water supply, the company states right up front they won’t be held responsible for any damage that will result from fluoridation.
Mothers are being warned never to use fluoridated water to bathe their babies or to use in mixing up a bottle of formula, yet the Skagit County commissioners, who mandated our PUD inject fluoride into our water supply, haven’t offered parents any alternatives.
Fluoride is easily available from any dentist for anyone who wants it. There’s no good reason to force the entire population of Skagit County to ingest chemical plant wastes based on flawed science and a rushed decision.