EUREKA SPRINGS — The Carroll-Boone Water District will hold its regular quarterly meeting Thursday, April 19, at 10 a.m. at the Freeman-Raney Water Treatment Plant on Hwy. 187, west of Eureka Springs.

On the agenda will be an update of the fluoride study done by engineers McGoodwin, Williams & Yates (MWY).

The board will review a packet of information sent to them by Office Manager Jim Allison, which includes an estimate of costs to build two fluoride-dispensing facilities.

Grantor Delta Dental has replied with a reduction of those costs and a contract offer to pay $763,000 of the initial $1.2 million estimate.

Some of the reduction is for square footage of the two buildings housing the equipment and supplies. MWY is expected to discuss their response to this reduction and explain why their original facility construction costs are correct.

Also included is a letter to state Rep. Bryan B. King from the Bureau of Legislative Research, rendering an opinion that water districts do not have to fulfill the state’s mandate to fluoridate if grant funds are not available to cover the complete cost of construction.

CBWD water operators have repeatedly requested information about contaminants in the sodium fluorosilicate product they will have to order from overseas, as it is no longer available in the United States. Even though the product, used by other water districts, has an NSF (National Sanitation Foundation) stamp on it, CBWD wants a data sheet on it.

“We continue to be concerned that no supplier or manufacturer will furnish us the information required under the rules of NSF 60,” Allison wrote in a memo to the board. “… We are asking no more or less than what is submitted to NSF to get their approval. We all have an obligation as licensed operators to know what is being put in the water especially if it is a product not needed for potable water.”

Also on the agenda is a report by plant manager John Summers on a washout that occurred in Keels Creek near the Carroll-Boone pipeline. Streambank stabilization work is expected to be undertaken.

The board will hear a membership and donation request from Jason Kindall, executive director of the Beaver Watershed Alliance, a non-profit group working on watershed protection issues. The group is non-regulatory and works to get grants for such projects as repairing washouts of creeks that feed Beaver Lake.

The board will also select an insurance carrier for a three-year contract and review the second-quarter financial report. The public is invited to attend.

*Original article online at http://www.carrollconews.com/story/1838761.html

Reprinted with permission