Fluoride in water? Washington's Kalama, with Portland native on city council, preps for potential vote

A small Washington city is considering giving its residents a say in whether fluoride should continue to be added to city drinking water, some fifty years after the chemical was first added to local tap water.

Kalama, in Cowlitz County, could consider giving its 2,344 residents a vote to remove fluoride from its water supply. According to the The Daily News in nearby Longview, Kalama’s mayor has considered giving voters a say in removing fluoride for months.

Last May, Portland voters resoundingly defeated a proposal to fluoridate the Rose City’s drinking water. Voters rejected the measure 60 percent to 40 percent, the fourth such defeat since 1956.

Mary Putka, one of Kalama’s City Council members, knows Portland’s water battles all too well, according to a previous article in The Daily News.

“It’s like a “bad dream,” she said. “It just came out of the blue.”

Putka, who acknowledges that she typically is a quiet voice on the council, said
she “couldn’t sit back on this one,” calling the effort to remove fluoride “rash and mostly rogue.”

The City Council will consider referring the issue to voters at its meeting Wednesday night, according to the paper.