Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - It was more than a week ago where The Buffalo News revealed the City of Buffalo had ceased putting fluoride in its drinking water system as of 2015. According to the Buffalo Water Board in the initial report, it had stopped adding fluoride to the water, citing "a need for upgrades and 'ongoing capital improvements' to its system."
A couple of days later, Buffalo water officials announced that fluoride will, once again, be added to the city's drinking water supply.
"Buffalo is committed to fluoridation of our drinking water, which is why we have invested over $1 million to study and upgrade our current system," said Chairman of Buffalo Water, OJ McFoy in a statement. "The plan was for the project to be completed several years ago, but like many things, was slowed during the pandemic and is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year.
"Buffalo Water’s role as a Public Health provider is to ensure safe drinking water for all our residents. We initially placed the Fluoride Conversion project on hold out of an abundance of caution for water quality concerns related to lead and corrosion control. We partnered with the University at Buffalo to develop a state of the art Pipe Loop Laboratory, where they studied the treatment process optimizations over several years and concluded in November 2019 that: 'The results provide strong statistical evidence that the addition of {fluorosilicic Acid} FSA does not result in increased leaching of lead.' While many things were slowed during the pandemic, Buffalo is committed to moving forward with the Fluoride upgrade project."
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Despite the response by the Buffalo Water Authority to the report, the news had caught many residents of the city completely by surprise. This included members of the Buffalo Common Council, who had started getting calls from a number of concerned residents.
"I was absolutely stunned, to be quite honest, because all of this time, we thought that there was fluoride in the water. Even if it was minimized, that's something that should be a public conversation," said Councilman Rasheed Wyatt following Tuesday's Buffalo Common Council session at City Hall. "This water issue is a big one nationally. So any changes to our water I think is so important to have public conversation, because when you hear that issue, you start wondering about other things."
"I was certainly taken back," added Councilman Mitch Nowakowski after Tuesday's session. "I think that a lot of folks are commenting and realizing that, 'OK, you don't need to drink from the garden hose.' I mean, this is water that you're assuming using when you're brushing your teeth, or just grabbing to put a pot of coffee on, and what elements of fluoride that still remain through those various sources that we drink it through every single day."
During Tuesday's brief meeting, it was an item on the agenda from Councilman David Rivera to discuss a letter that he had written to the Buffalo Water Authority regarding the public's concern with the lack of fluoride in the drinking water.
"I sent the letter to the Chairman of the Board of the Buffalo Water Authority, OJ McFoy, and asked him to come before the Common Council [and be] prepared to answer a few questions," said Rivera on Tuesday.
There was a clear indication from the councilmembers that there had been a breakdown in communication somewhere down the line in 2015 that let this key piece of information for residents slip through the cracks. Thus, resulting in the surprising news nearly eight months after the fact.
"Even when I was going through what was just reported on - I didn't see any reports to it - it just seemed to not be out there in the lexicon or in the vocabulary of people," Nowakowski said. "I think when it's something that's that significant, we really have to do our due diligence. Public education, some people think it's easy, it is a noble job to properly notify the public. When you're talking about the City of Buffalo, you're talking about the diversity of people, there's people that I represent that if it's not in the mail, they're not reading it. If it's not on the news, they're not seeing it. Or now with this new growing hybrid way of population of communication, it's, 'Did I get an email? Did I see something on social media?'"
Even if the information was disclosed in the city's water bill back in 2015, councilmembers know most people probably weren't looking for that type of information in a bill, especially in today's world of technology.
"There's going to be more conversation with our water board for those meetings to be more transparent, for people to know water is a very big issue. And we should be transparent and letting people know what is going on with it," Wyatt said. "Even though I know a lot of the meetings that I have with them are regarding bonds, but as far as treatment of those things, we have to be conscious of making people aware of what's going on."
"It can't be something that's hidden in a paragraph at the very end, it has to be something that people are aware of," Rivera added. "We got calls from residents, both parents and grandparents, and just people at large concerned about not having fluoride in the water. As a result of that, we're asking what other additives are not in the system that should be in the system. And I'm not pointing a finger, perhaps there's an excuse, but in the meantime, we just want to make sure that people are aware of what's being added into the water, and what are the contaminants? I don't know."
With important public information such as this not getting to residents of the city, the immediate concern for councilmembers doesn't just lie with the lack of fluoride in the water, but also the breakdown of that communication, which needs to be properly addressed sooner rather than later.
"I don't know what was the rationale behind reducing the fluoride. I don't know. We need some experts to come and explain to us that," Wyatt said. "But again, not to have that information and all of a sudden to see it on the front page of The News is not a good look."
"I would want that information sent to me first, every single time that I go through my email and I do autopay on my water bill. I would like something that says, 'Before you pay, please read.' Then you have to go through it, make sure that you're looking at it, confirm that you read it, and then get to your bill," Nowakowski added as a possible solution. "I think that most people, if it's not something that stops you from completing a transaction, people mostly will just overlook it. But if there's some form of metrics that we could use to engage people digitally throughout their bills, especially with more people going on autopay, I think it would be an incredibly important thing."
Rivera also agrees that changes such as this need to be sent out to city residents in more than one way. Whether it's via the water bill or trash bills from the city, bulletins, social media or a press release, whichever way they can disseminate information, they should. It also needs to be very clear and concise for people in different languages.
"I think there's going to be more scrutiny now going forward, in terms of what is in water, simply by what's going on across the country. People want to know, especially folks that have young children," Rivera said. "One of the concerns we've got [is] the kids [with] the decay of teeth and things like that. So certainly they have valid concerns, valid reasons for why to be concerned, and hopefully the Water Authority will come in and answer many of those questions, and [alleviate] many of the concerns that they have."
The item ended up being referred to the Community Development committee headed by Rivera, and is next set to be addressed next Tuesday afternoon.