Birmingham city leaders say the region’s water utility created the fluoride problem that it is now refusing to fix.
City attorneys are making their final pitch in court, asking Jefferson County Circuit Judge Frederic Bolling to order Central Alabama Water to resume adding fluoride and to declare the situation a public nuisance.
The request comes after a hearing April 2 in which Bolling found the utility violated state law by abruptly ending fluoridation without proper notice. However, he indicated his options were limited once the utility later notified state health officials.
The city is now using its final brief to argue that the issue goes beyond a technical violation but instead reflects a broader failure by the utility to maintain its system and protect public health.
Bolling left the door open for that argument when he allowed additional briefs before issuing a final order, giving the city one last chance to make its case.
In response, Birmingham officials escalated their tone, placing direct blame on the utility and its current leadership for what they describe as a breakdown in both operations and public trust.
“…Defendants’ hands are unclean (if not filthy), and they must not be allowed to point the fingers on those unclean hands everywhere else except at themselves,” the city wrote in its latest filing.
Mayor Randall Woodfin has been critical of Central Alabama Water’s decision and accused its leaders of making political moves with indifference to public health.
The city filed a lawsuit March 27 and asked Bolling to order the utility to pause on its plans.
Reached by AL.com, Central Alabama Water spokesman John Matson declined to comment, citing the utility’s policy of not commenting on litigation.
Central Alabama Water had discounted the weight of its decision to end fluoride in late March and said most customers have unknowingly gone without fluoride for years under previous leaders at the former Birmingham Water Works Board.
As criticism grew, the utility defended its position and said that the old Birmingham water board stopped fluoridating water at three of its four plants in 2023 and 2024. That happened due to lack of maintenance, CAW officials said.
However, some previous board leaders, including former chairwoman Tereshia Q. Huffman said they were never told about any malfunction or failure to provide fluoride.
All four CAW plants have at times stopped providing fluoride, including the last plant to provide it. In court, water utility attorney Shan Paden said each of the four plants that serve the system had experienced malfunctions over the years which would cost millions to repair.
The city countered, saying that while the name of the utility has changed, the people in charge of fluoridation have remained the same, including current CEO Jeffrey Thompson and Chief Operating Officer Tim Harris. Both men were previously at the utility before being elevated to senior leadership in late 2025.
“Despite defendant’s knowledge of their fluoridation systems, defendants permitted their systems to fall into a state of disrepair,” city attorneys wrote. “Now, defendants allege that the cost of fixing the problem – that they created – is too much. The community is not convinced, and neither should this court.”
The city cites Alabama Code §22-23-21 which requires 90 days’ notice to the Alabama Department of Public Health before making any changes to fluoride.
While state law requires a 90-day notice before changing fluoride in water, the law makes an exception if the service stops because of mechanical malfunction, as was the stated case with the Birmingham Water Works.
Fluoride is a mineral that is added to water to prevent tooth decay, particularly in children. Its use was considered a major public health achievement but has become politically charged in recent years.
The city in its latest filing presents statements from former senior managers at the utility who said it was Thompson and Harris who were in charge when the early fluoride malfunctions occurred in 2019 and 2023.
Jonathan Harris, a retired water treatment plant manager whose responsibilities included maintenance and upgrading fluoride equipment, said in an affidavit that fluoride was being provided at three of the four plants when he retired in late 2022.
Harris said only the Shades Mountain Filter Plant was not operational, but equipment was on order when he retired in Dec. 2022.
“If that equipment was not installed, it was the responsibility of Jeff Thompson and Tim Harris,” Jonathan Harris wrote. “Therefore, if the fluoride system in the other water plants were in disrepair in 2023 and 2024, it was because Jeff Thompon and Tim Harris did not make sure that necessary repairs and maintenance were actually performed so fluoride was put in our water.”
Jonathan Harris also later served briefly on the Birmingham Water Works Board before it was reorganized.
Another court statement from Drusilla Hudson, a recently retired testing lab manager, also supported the city’s argument.
“They were the ones who were ultimately responsible for ensuring that fluoridation systems were working and that needed maintenance and repairs were done to keep fluoridation in our water,” Hudson said.
While both sides point to each other as the culprit, Judge Bolling at the last hearing said there is enough blame to go around from current and past water utility leadership. Bolling noted that initial issues with fluoride occurred under the leadership of the Birmingham Water Works, not the current leadership.
“There’s been a very big letdown, but in 2023 it was not Central Alabama Water,” Bolling said earlier this month.
Breakdowns in water fluoridation occurred during Thompson’s time as an assistant manager, but they also occurred under the leadership of previous general managers and interim general managers and were not publicly revealed until Thompson took control. Thompson returned to the utility in Nov. 2025.
Original article online at: https://www.al.com/news/birmingham/2026/04/birmingham-says-water-utilitys-filthy-hands-created-fluoride-crisis-and-now-must-fix-it.html