Local municipalities vary in fluoridation water policies

NORTHEAST WIS. – The City of Peshtigo isn’t the only local municipality grappling with new questions about fluoride in the wake of a federal judge’s Sept. 24 decision to order the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to go back to the drawing board on fluoridation and reconsider whether the mineral used for dental health should be added to public water supplies.

Based on interviews and requests for information with local officials and public water managers, many people in northeast Wisconsin and Michigan’s Menominee County have accepted fluoridated water without giving it much thought, while others simply leave it out of their public water systems. The City of Peshtigo plans to revisit its fluoridation in the coming weeks, Mayor Katie Berman said.

Meanwhile, nearby in the Town of Peshtigo, which doesn’t provide water service to its residents and where concerns over “forever chemicals” detected in groundwater that feeds many private wells spurred the Town Board to research and discuss various water options, the topic of fluoride hasn’t received much attention, current and former town board chairs said.

Fluoride didn’t come up when resident Jennifer Friday, a nurse practitioner concerned about the water, volunteered to help gather community input on the various options Tyco was presenting. She is now chair of the Town of Peshtigo’s Town Board. “Typically out in rural areas you don’t have fluoridated water, right, so it doesn’t pertain to the Town of Peshtigo,” she said.

When asked whether she felt it was important to have fluoride in drinking water, Friday replied, “I personally do not.” Asked if she felt fluoridation is a hazard, she said, “I don’t personally have an opinion one way or the other.”

Indifference about fluoride isn’t unusual, as it is considered safe for consumption. Most public officials and water managers contacted for this story said fluoride was a nonissue. However, most Wisconsin municipalities don’t use anywhere near the amount of fluoride allowed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to information from the state Department of Health Services.

Local municipalities in Oconto, Marinette and Menominee counties vary in their positions on fluoridation.

Public water supplies in the city of Marinette, the city of Peshtigo and the city of Menominee provide fluoridated water, according to water system managers and officials at each of the cities.

So does the City of Niagara, a city of 1,558 in Marinette County, according to Davd Dunlap, operator at the water plant. Dunlap adds fluoride to the water for a residual level of 0.7-0.8 parts per million and tests it daily, he said.

Niagara’s 2023 Consumer Confidence Report lists fluoride levels of 0.1 parts per million, but the actual amount of fluoride in the water is higher, according to the city.

Niagara City Administrator Audrey Fredrick said the number in the 2023 Consumer Confidence Report doesn’t reflect the amount of fluoride added. A level of 0.1 “is what occurs naturally, but the water department feeds in an additional amount to maintain the 0.7-0.8 parts per million,” Fredrick said. Dunlap said he would look into the discrepancy in the number reported on the Consumer Confidence Report.

“The dentists say it’s good for your teeth, so we continue to add it,” he said. Asked for how long the city has added fluoride, Dunlap said, “I’ve been here around 10 years, and it was long, long before that. I wouldn’t even know when they started adding it.” The drinking water is pulled from wells, he said. “From what the old mayor tells me, the city voted on it. All the dentists say it’s good for your teeth. Conspiracy people say it’s a waste the government is trying to get rid of,” he said.

The City of Oconto doesn’t add fluoride, according to City Administrator Brittney Burruel. “All the fluoride is naturally occurring,” she said. According to Matthew Beekman, utility manager at the City of Oconto, “Oconto Waterworks drinking water contains natural fluoride... The drinking water provided by your community water system Oconto Waterworks has a fluoride concentration of 2.10 mg/l.” This information is from the city’s 2023 Consumer Confidence Report, he said. Water experts said 2.10 mg/l is equivalent to 2.1 parts per million. The U.S. EPA’s Maximum Contaminant Level for fluoride is 4 parts per million.

In the City of Marinette, Warren Howard, water utilities operations manager, said the water is fluoridated at the level of 0.7 parts per million, at the recommendation of the Wisconsin Department of Health Service. This is considered the lowest level to still provide dental benefits to residents, Howard said. “We used to be at 1.1,” he said.

Howard said he is aware some people have concerns about fluoridation’s effects. “We are aware of it. We brought it to our commission twice,” he said. The Waste and Water Commission works with the Marinette Health Department to decide whether to divert from the state agency’s recommendations. So far, the city has agreed to stay with the Department of Health Services’ recommended level, he said.

The City of Marinette draws its water from the Bay of Green Bay on the Michigan side of the Menominee River, according to Mike Thorsen, senior project manager at the City of Menominee’s Water Utility.

In the City of Menominee, which draws its water from the Bay of Green Bay, fluoride is added to the water, according to Thorsen. He said the average fluoride level in 2023 was about 0.66 parts per million.

The city started fluoridating water on Oct. 7, 1957, Thorsen said. He said the fluoridation isn’t his decision. “It was voted on by the public. If the public wants to stop doing it, we can do it,” Thorsen said, and the city will abide by the public’s vote. “You always have these people who don’t want it in the water. There’s always a few that question it,” he said. There are people who call the water utility and inquire about the fluoride level, he said.

The City of Stephenson, Mich., provides municipal water drawn from three municipal wells about 350 feet deep for its population of about 860 people. In 2023, the fluoride level in the municipal water was about 0.14 parts per million, according to the city’s 2023 Water Quality Report.

A more recent test in August detected fluoride at 0.1 parts per million in Stephenson, Mich., Department of Public Works Supervisor Jordon Belec said. No measurable amount of PFAS was detected, according to the 2023 report. A more recent test in August detected fluoride at 0.1 parts per million and no PFAS, Belec said.

In Marinette County, Village of Wausaukee Public Works Director Dennis Whitton said two municipal wells provide a public water service to residents. “We do not put fluoride in the water,” he said. Asked how much naturally occurring fluoride it contains, he said, “none.” A 2023 Consumer Confidence

Report listed a fluoride range of “0.1-0.1” parts per million. No one is clamoring for fluoride to be added, according to Village Administrator Sara Pullen said.
“I’ve been here for 17 years, and this issue has never been discussed. I’m going to assume that this was a decision by a past board long ago. We have always just done whatever keeps us in compliance with the DNR,” she said.

If fluoride is detected in a water system, it’s probably been added, Whitton said. “As far as I know, it’s not a naturally occurring thing. You have to inject it into your water,” Whitton said.

But Oconto City Administrator Brittney Burruel disagreed. She said the city’s water utility does not add fluoride: “All the fluoride is naturally occurring.”

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s website lists the City of Oconto as an area where the water contains fluoride. According to Matthew Beekman, utility manager at the City of Oconto, “Oconto Waterworks’ drinking water contains natural fluoride... The drinking water provided by your community water system Oconto Waterworks has a fluoride concentration of 2.10 mg/l.”

This information is from the city’s 2023 Consumer Confidence Report, he said. The U.S. EPA’s Maximum Contaminant Level for fluoride is 4 parts per million, or 4 mg/l.

The City of Peshtigo, which draws its water from municipal wells, has a level of 0.7 mg/L. Crivitz doesn’t add fluoride, so its fluoride levels are almost nonexistent, but it does register a 1.70 ppt level for Perfluorohexanesulfonic acid (PFHXS), a so-called “forever chemical,” which utilities director Rudi Jensen said he was watching. It’s within levels considered safe.

Some areas of Menominee and Marinette counties don’t provide water service, particularly the unincorporated towns. The Town of Peshtigo doesn’t provide a public water supply to its residents, but it has discussed a PFAS contamination in the groundwater because so many residents have been pulling their water from private wells.

Former Town Board Chair Cindy Boyle, who is still active on the state and national level with efforts to clean up PFAS contaminations, said the issue of fluoridation didn’t come up during discussions about water solutions at Town Board and Water Committee meetings.

“We weren’t at that point,” she said, to talk about fluoridation. The focus was on determining the best way to provide clean, PFAS-free drinking water to residents. Boyle said she uses a POET filtration system and bottled water on top of it, which Johnson Controls’ Tyco unit pays for.

“The EPA sets the standards,” Boyle said. But she didn’t rule out the fact fluoride standards could be out of date, as they haven’t adjusted the levels in 30 or 40 years.

Still, Boyle said, “It’s not something I’m elevating to the level of PFAS.”