Sometimes, two seemingly completely unrelated events come together to show a bigger, more important story that needs to be told. The Flint water contamination case was recently settled. In case you’ve forgotten, the city of Flint was in receivership from the state of Michigan from 2011 to 2015. During that time, state-appointed emergency managers decided to cut costs by switching the source of the city’s municipal water after cost increases by the equally cash-strapped Detroit Water Department, the source of the city’s drinking water at the time. Their county was in the process of opening a new water treatment facility, but it was several years from completion. The Emergency Manager’s decision was to reopen a mothball facility in Flint to use the local Flint River (instead of Lake Huron) as the local water source.
This decision led to the Flint water crisis, which was national news from April 2014 to 2015. The change in source and treatment facility exposed residents to lead levels that were well above safe levels. were determined by the US Environmental Protection Agency. Lead is not safe at any level, and the levels reported were high, but it was the immediate rise in detected lead, not the high levels, that gained media attention. In fact, as we’ve reported before, many older cities (including Buffalo) have higher levels of lead in home drinking water.
Lead is not the irrelevant link for this story. Buffalo discovered near the end of a January 2023 Buffalo Water report:
FLUORIDE ADDITION INFORMATION – Our system is one of several drinking water systems in New York State that provides drinking water with a controlled, low level of fluoride to protect the dental health of consumers. According to the United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC), fluoride is very effective in preventing tooth decay when present in drinking water at a properly controlled level. There is currently a pause in fluoride addition due to ongoing capital improvements related to upgrades to our fluoride system. As of June 22, 2015, fluoride has not been added to your drinking water and we do not expect to restore fluoride addition until various capital projects are completed. You may want to discuss this with your family dentist to see if another form of fluoride supplementation should be considered for your dental protection.
Yes, the fluoride that prevents tooth decay and decay has been missing from the water supplied to city residents for nine years. After that report was released, the Buffalo Water Authority (BWA) told the Common Council that fluoride treatments would resume by August, but did not explain the delay beyond the need for “system upgrades.” Closer inspection of their annual reports would have spotted this sooner. In 2018, the BWA report stated “we do not expect fluoride addition to be reinstated until December 2018”. Two class action lawsuits have been filed against the city of Buffalo and the Buffalo Water Authority, with damages expected to exceed $160 million.
Here’s the connection: In the Flint water crisis, Veolia, a company that manages drinking water facilities around the world, was hired as a consulting engineering firm to manage the new water distribution system. They recently agreed to a $25 million settlement to resolve a federal class-action lawsuit related to their work in Flint. This is the same company that operates the Buffalo Water Authority water plant.
More questions than answers remain. Mainly what led to the supposed nine years of “system upgrades?” And will we be told when/if fluoride is added to Buffalo water again? In the meantime, if you live/work in the city of Buffalo and drink water, as the January 2023 Buffalo Water report states: at a minimum, “You may want to discuss this with your family dentist to see if some other form of fluoride supplementation would should be considered for your dental protection.”
Main image: Photo by mrjn Photography
