Facing scrutiny for their decision to immediately stop adding fluoride to drinking water, without input from the public, the leaders of Alabama’s largest water utility said most customers have not been getting fluoride for years anyway.
“It’s important to realize that pretty much no one in Birmingham has had any fluoride in their water for two years,” said John Matson, spokesman for Central Alabama Water.
Central Alabama Water last week announced it was immediately stopping all fluoride use, saying it would save money.
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, Matson said. And it was before state legislators removed the old Birmingham Water Works Board leadership and replaced it with a new regional configuration.
However, Jeffrey Thompson, who is now the CEO of the utility, was an employee in charge of the utility’s operations at the time.
Critics of the utility and its current management blame Thompson for not addressing initial failures that ended fluoridation at plants when he oversaw them.
In a court filing on Wednesday, Mark Parnell, the former longtime attorney for the utility, said the new leadership is unfairly blaming former leaders, including him, for problems. Parnell in his filing is asking a Jefferson County judge to hold the utility in contempt for breaking a non-disparagement agreement with him.
“Indeed, because he was in charge of all of these operations at BWWB for the years preceding all of these failures, Mr. Thompson is directly responsible for the decline of these systems in the years leading up to the failures,” Parnell’s lawyer John Somerville wrote in his filing.
Somerville wrote that as an assistant general manager at the time, it was Thompson who had a duty to report and correct equipment failures.
“It was Thompson’s job to perform maintenance and ensure that these plants were operating. They all failed during or soon after his departure.”
“His failure to do so – while publicly blaming prior management – compound the harm and the contempt,” Somerville wrote.
Some current and former board members, including former chairwoman Tereshia Q. Huffman, said the old board was never notified of any malfunction or failure to provide fluoride.
“I want to be clear, the former board had no knowledge — and was never informed by management — that any treatment plants were not producing fluoride,” she told AL.com.
It was Thompson’s responsibility to alert the board of failures to fluoridate the water, and he failed to do so, she said.
“You do not get to play hero or victim for a decision you made — a decision you chose not to disclose — especially when it impacts the public health of over 500,000 customers,” she told AL.com.
While last week’s announcement to stop all fluoridation came as a surprise to local residents, officials and even area health leaders, Matson said Central Alabama Water followed state law by notifying customers before discontinuing fluoride treatment in its drinking water.
“We filed the proper notice,” he told AL.com Wednesday.
Alabama law says a water utility shall provide written notice to the State Health Officer no fewer than 90 days before making changes to fluoridation status.
But a spokesperson for the Alabama Department of Public Health, said the utility notified them of the changes on March 12. That was just eight days before announcing the change without public discussion.
“ADPH did not receive notification within the prescribed period,” a spokesperson told AL.com Wednesday in response to an inquiry. “Our agency is working now to determine its next steps.”
The action shocked local leaders, including Dr. David Hicks, head of the Jefferson County Health Department, who expressed concern about removing fluoride from the drinking water.
In a recent AL.com editorial, Hicks touted the importance of fluoride for oral health, particularly for younger people.
Matson said that until last week, only the Shades Mountain Filter Plant, which serves the suburbs had continued to provide fluoride before it was discontinued last week.
“Once CAW’s leadership team learned that only Shades Mountain Filter Plant’s fluoridation system was the only one functioning, they realized it wouldn’t be right to have only part of the system fluoridated when we couldn’t afford to repair the other three plants for at least two years,” Matson said.
Controversy surfaces
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 cost to replace fluoride delivery equipment was among the $3.7 million in capital projects that Thompson recently removed from the revised capital budget that was also presented Friday.
Thompson’s decision, without notice or public discussion, to end fluoride at the state’s largest water provider, puts Birmingham in the middle of a longstanding national partisan debate. It has also spawned a torrent of criticism.
Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin turned to social media Tuesday night to assail the utility’s leadership for its recent move.
“Stop playing in our face,” Woodfin wrote on Facebook.
Woodfin said an October 2024 report included a detailed review of plant operations and 20 capital projects at plants that were necessary for operations. Two fluoride feed projects were included in that list, he said.
A revised capital budget presented by Thompson and approved by the board last Friday slashed capital spending by more than half.
The new capital budget is $34.9 million, cut more than half from the original $75.7 million, including money to address fluoride infrastructure.
Woodfin, who at times clashed with the former Birmingham Water Works Board leadership, said Central Alabama is not immune to the same criticism.
“Y’all can get the same energy I gave the prior board when you are not transparent and honest with the customers,” he wrote regarding the new board. “You are not just a public entity. This is our water we are talking about.”
Matson, the utility spokesman, pushed back against finger-pointing at Thompson, saying that Thompson at the time was not responsible for maintenance, only operations.
“The fluoride system failures were known internally and reported,” Matson said.
State legislation in 2025 reconfigured the water board and placed Birmingham’s appointed members in minority status. The current board has seven members, two from Birmingham and the rest from suburban Jefferson, St. Clair and Shelby counties.
Several lawsuits were filed to challenge the changes.
Current board member Jarvis Patton called the fluoride decision another example of the majority leadership’s indifference to the customers they serve.
Patton is one of the two Birmingham Democrats on the new board, which now is dominated by five Republican appointees.
“It is my understanding that there have been discussions with certain board members over the last two months concerning this issue,” Patton told AL.com. “With the state of Alabama taking control of the water system, this is what we get when we get persons in positions who care nothing about their residents or their population. Shame on you.”
The utility’s board, after going to executive session last week, approved a resolution affirming Thompson’s new, unprecedented powers as CEO, including the ability to set policy – a power formerly reserved for board members.
Thompson, who was hired as CEO in November, has yet to sit for an interview with any news outlet.
Huffman, who was the last chair of the utility before state lawmakers took control, is a critic of the takeover, the new management and its recent actions.
“At a time when integrity, customer service, public health, jobs, and transparency should be prioritized,” said Huffman, “this pattern of behavior reinforces a hard truth: there is no honor among thieves.”
Original article online at: https://www.al.com/news/2026/03/as-criticism-mounts-water-board-blames-past-leaders-for-years-of-water-without-fluoride.html