The Integrity Municipal Systems LLC Fluoride Feed System.

Mad River Union

ARCATA – The City Council last week approved a $38,000 upgrade to its fluoride feed system. The current system, cobbled together from disparate parts, is old, janky, fussy and not the safest for city workers.

Upgrading it hasn’t been easy. Vendors were either unresponsive or offered to supply the same equipment the city wants to replace. But one, Integrity Municipal Systems LLC, came through with a proposal for a modern fluoride feed system.

According to a staff report, it consists of an upflow fluoride saturator tank, fluoride solution storage tank, chemical metering pump, water supply feed, piping, valves, fittings, instrumentation and controls. Once Arcata’s specific design is approved in four to six weeks, shipment should take place 10 to 12 weeks later.

The system is designed to add sodium fluoride solution to drinking water at the recommended concentration of 0.7 milligrams per liter. Should levels exceed those recommended, the system shuts down.

Community water fluoridation was approved in the late 1950s in Arcata, but not implemented until the early 1960s.

Purchase was OK’d via unanimous council approval of the Consent Calendar, with no public comment submitted.

*Original article online at https://madriverunion.com/arcatas-janky-fluoride-rig-getting-an-upgrade/