PORT ANGELES — The City Council formally agreed Tuesday night by a 5-1 vote to accept the Washington Dental Services Foundation’s “gift” of a fluoridation plant for the city’s water supply.
City Councilman Larry Williams was the lone “no” vote on accepting the agreement, which puts fluoridation once step closer in the city’s water supply.
City Councilman Jack Pittis, who has voted against previous fluoridation decisions, was absent from Tuesday night’s meeting.
Fluoridation opponents said if the City Council accepting the agreement isn’t sufficient grounds for filing a lawsuit to stop the fluoridation project, they will wait for one that is.
Tuesday’s agreement is the latest in a string of actions by the City Council dating back to February 2003, when the council agreed to accept a Washington Dental Services Foundation grant of up to $260,000 to build a water fluoridation plant and provide public education on fluoridation.
Process slowed
The effort has been slowed since then by citizens group appeals and even a request by another government agency.
The Clallam County Public Utility District last year requested the city redraft its environmental impact analysis to account for the impact on PUD water customers who use city water wholesaled to the utility district.
The city Community Development Department’s ruling that the water fluoridation project poses no significant environmental impact also was challenged before the City Council last July.
The challenge was filed by Clallam County Citizens for Safe Drinking Water, Protect the Peninsula’s Future, Blyn physician Eloise Kailin, and Barney Munger, a Safe Drinking Water member who lives in Port Angeles.
The council last summer overruled any of the challenges to the denial of an environmental-impact statement, leading to Tuesday’s gifting agreement from the dental association.
