The long running debate over adding fluoride to the Erie water supply came to a head on Wednesday at city council’s regular meeting. Council voted 5 to 2 to pass an ordinance banning the Erie Water Authority from adding fluoride to the water supply. The ordinance is called the Safe Drinking Water Act of the city of Erie. Supporters of the act don’t believe there’s conclusive evidence of fluoride’s benefits, and that it’s not the water authority’s call to add it into the water supply. On the other hand supporters of fluoridated water say it is effective in reducing tooth decay, and expect massive reductions in tooth decay to have resulted from the addition of fluoride into the area’s water supply. A big question remains. How much of a legal bite will this Safe Drinking water Act have ? Some say it won’t have any affect on water authority policy. However Erie Councilman Ian Murray on Wednesday introduced a resolution stating the water authority had “violated its contracted responsibility” when it initiated the fluoride issue in the first place. “So I feel that’s a material deviation from the prevailing standards in existence at the time this was entered into.” With that, the matter apparently may still end up being deciding in the courts because the water authority is poised to begin adding fluoride to the water supply in November. Councilmen Joe Borgia and Mel Witherspoon voted “No” to the fluoride ban, hoping for court action to settle the dispute.

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