Hanover seeks pause in fluoride use amid shortage

Hanover Borough is seeking an emergency permit to stop adding fluoride to its water due to a supply shortage.
The borough’s fluoride supplier was unable to source the chemical and declined its supply contract.
Current fluoride supplies for the water system are expected to run out within four to six weeks, officials say.

Hanover Borough officials announced they are seeking an emergency permit to temporarily pause the use of fluoride in drinking water after the system was unable to find a supplier.

Borough Council heard an update on the supply issues faced by the water system during the March meeting on Wednesday, March 25. Earlier this month, Mayor Heidi Hormel broke a deadlocked vote, postponing a decision on whether to remove fluoride from the water supplies.

Tony Thomas, the borough’s director of water and wastewater treatment, told the council that the water system’s 2026 supplier of fluoride, Univar Solutions, has declined to sign their supply contract that was due to begin on April 1 after the company was unable to source the fluoride needed for the contract.

“They cannot procure the fluoride,” Thomas said, “there is a shortage.”

The water system will exhaust their supplies of fluoride in between four and six weeks, Thomas said during the March 25 meeting.

Fluoride strengthens teeth and reduces cavities by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In 1950, federal officials endorsed water fluoridation to prevent tooth decay. About one-third of community water systems — 17,000 out of 51,000 across the U.S. — serving more than 60% of the population fluoridated their water, according to a 2022 CDC analysis.

A growing number of municipal water systems across the United States, however, are reversing course over concerns about the safety of fluoride.

The CDC reports that the discontinuation of supplemental fluoridation triggers an on-average 25% increase in cavities and dental costs across a community.

While Hanover opted voluntarily to add fluoride to the water system in 1972, the system is required to meet the testing standards for fluoride levels under Hanover’s water permit, and if water tests do not reach the required levels listed on their permit, the state would still consider that a violation of Hanover’s permit.

As a result, the Water Resources Department has begun the process to apply for an emergency permit from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to temporarily pause the required levels of fluoride that are listed on their water permit, Thomas said.

That emergency permit, he said, would last temporarily until Hanover can find a new supply of fluoride.

A Tier II public notice will be sent out during the process, Thomas said, per DEP regulations. Such a notice is required to be provided to each customer for the water system, according to the DEP.

In addition to serving Hanover Borough, the local water system also offers services to residents in Penn Township, Conewago Township, and McSherrystown Borough, along with partial service to some customers in Heidelberg Township. In all, the system serves roughly 49,000 customers, records show.

Hanover was not the only system experiencing shortages, with Lititz Borough in Lancaster County having previously paused their use of fluoride on March 21, citing a shortage of their supply of the materials needed for fluoridation.

The Lititz system then issued a release announcing that they had received their shipment of the material and had resumed its use on March 26.

Hanover’s reported shortage, and the associated emergency permit, arose separately from the Hanover council’s recent consideration of permanently removing fluoride from the water system, borough manager Margie Lewis noted in a prior meeting.

A vote on a proposal to seek the permanent removal of fluoride from the water system’s permit was postponed during the March Finance and Personnel meeting, in which the council requested additional information from staff and further public notice.

That proposal was likely to return to discussion during the next meeting of the Hanover Borough Water & Sewer Committee scheduled in May.

Original article online at: https://www.eveningsun.com/story/news/local/2026/03/26/hanover-water-system-running-out-of-fluoride-seeks-to-pause-use/89332350007/