Great article regarding the November Cotati City Council vote rejecting the addition of fluoridation chemicals to water supplied by the Sonoma County Water Agency (SCWA).
By Lynn Kwitt, Fluoride-Free Sonoma County
In an unprecedented 5-0 City Council vote on November 12, Cotati joined a growing number of college towns including Davis, California, and Portland, Oregon, voting to keep fluoridation chemicals out of their water supply.
Cotati is one of nine major cities and water districts supplied by the Sonoma County Water Agency (SCWA). These cities and water districts deliver drinking water to more than 600,000 residents in portions of Sonoma and Marin counties. Only Santa Rosa, Petaluma and the North Marin Water District have more than 10,000 connections and are subject to the California State AB733 mandate to fluoridate if funding is available. Because Cotati and the other five jurisdictions in the SCWA service area have fewer than 10,000 connections, they are not subject to the State mandate and are free to choose whether or not to fluoridate.
The relationship between SCWA and the nine cities and water agencies it supplies (commonly referred to as the ‘Contractors’) is governed by a complex agreement. According to the Technical Advisory Committee of the Contractors, this agreement would need to be amended by unanimous vote of all nine Contractors before fluoridation could be undertaken. The current agreement took several years to negotiate.
The November 12 Cotati City Council hearing was prompted by a Sonoma County Grand Jury report, which recommended that both sides of the issue be heard. After hearing presentations and public comment, the Cotati Council members expressed concerns about the cost impacts, overall potential health risks, inefficiencies of the plan, and the lack of choice.
The Council members also expressed concern during their deliberations about how fluoridation would be paid for after First 5 tobacco tax funding of the startup capital cost and maintenance during the first two or three years ended.
When asked afterwards to comment on the unanimous vote, Cotati Mayor Mark Landman said, “We concluded that more cost effective and equitable alternatives exist for dental health in Sonoma County, and that would be a better course of action. More importantly, ‘choice’ was the word we heard repeatedly from our citizens. They asked us to respect their choice to decide what medications their families receive, and we agreed as an elected body that this decision should remain theirs.” Continue reading article
