Salt Lake County says water company not adding fluoride

Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon has not decided whether the county will sue a small water company for failing to add fluoride as required by public health rules. He wants to consult others before he acts on the request from the Salt Lake Valley Board of Health.

"It's an issue of fairness," Corroon told the Deseret Morning News.

He said he doesn't plan to look at whether water should be fluoridated, but rather whether it's fair to other water companies that obey the law to let this company refuse.

"I haven't made a decision yet," he said. "I want to speak to some council members first."

He said he expects to decide shortly.

The public health board unanimously passed a resolution last week asking that legal action be taken to force Holliday Water Co. to comply with the fluoridation health regulation. Salt Lake County voters approved adding fluoride to drinking water in 2000 by a margin of 58 to 42 percent. The board, which directs public health policy in the county, subsequently created Regulation 33.

But an attorney for Holliday Water Co. said the shareholders don't believe they should be subject to the fluoridation rules and the company will fight any effort to force compliance, although it has the equipment in place in its treatment plant.

"It's a question of self-determination," said Paul H. Ashton, attorney for Holliday Water Co., a mutual water system that serves about 14,000 customer/shareholders on the east bench of the county.

No, it's a question of upholding the law, counters David Wilde, county council member who serves on the board of health. "I think the health board tried to work with Holliday Water Co., and in fact almost bent over backwards. But there comes a point where you say you enforce the law or look the other way and pretend the law isn't what it is. I don't think we can do that.

"My personal feelings are neither here nor there. Voters voted for it."

Regulation 33 gave all public water systems in the county until October 2003 to begin fluoridating drinking water. Some, including Holliday Water, got the extensions they asked for. The others are now in compliance, said county health spokeswoman Pam Davenport, who declined to comment further because there may be litigation.

Holliday Water and the Salt Lake Valley Health Department have been doing a complicated dance around the issue for several years — the steps documented in minutes from board of health meetings and in the resolution/letter sent to Corroon.