The lawyer for citizen activist Linda King has filed an amendment to a lawsuit against South Blount County Utility District, now alleging the district’s Board of Directors did not provide a required 72-hours notice before voting to begin fluoridation.
Attorney Thomas Mabry said his clients went ahead and amended the complaint because there had been no response from SBCUD filed in Chancery Court.
The utility’s Board of Directors voted Jan. 2 to begin fluoridation at the request of Blount County Mayor Jerry Cunningham. Fluoridation ultimately began in May.
The amendment also alleges that SBCUD has not fulfilled various state reporting requirements regarding fluoride levels in its water. The amended complaint also demands that the utility provide a formal accounting of the costs of implementing fluoridation.
“We want to know what that cost,” Mabry said.
The SBCUD spokesperson had no comment on the amendment, pending review by the board’s attorney.
In May, Linda King of Citizens for Blount County’s Future filed suit in Blount County Chancery Court requesting that the utility provide documentation showing fluoride in water is safe to drink. She filed the suit individually and as a representative of “14,000 John and Jane Does representing the approximate number of water consumers of the South Blount County Utility District.”
The lawsuit requests that the utility provide the plaintiffs with documentation showing fluoridation is safe.
Plaintiffs named in the suit are the utility district, District Manager Henry Durant and the members of the Board of Directors: Virginia Morton, Tom Abbott and Marshall Hurst.
The lawsuit states: “Defendants have failed to review necessary and relevant safety data, failed to allow for public commentary based upon a full disclosure of the safety data, acted in secret and behind closed doors in an effort to avoid public commentary and discussion of their fluoridation plan, intentionally misled the public into believing that fluoride was not to be placed in their water supply … ”
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