Pretty soon, Florida’s tap water will be free of fluoride.
Florida is now the second state in the U.S., along with Utah, to ban fluoride in its drinking water.
There’s still time before the new law takes effect on July 1, but we wanted to know whether a city could challenge the law or put the question on a ballot for residents to decide.
The City of Stuart Water Treatment Facility provides drinking water to about 18,000 customers in Stuart.
They stopped adding fluoride to the water back in October.
But the fluoridation equipment is still here, and hundreds of gallons of fluoride that they no longer need.
With about six weeks to go before Florida’s statewide ban on fluoride takes effect, Michael Woodside, City of Stuart Water Treatment Plant Supervisor, showed us the small building where fluoride was precisely measured by a computerized system before it was added to the city’s drinking water.
“We would feed from this tank through these two metering pumps,” Woodside explained as he showed us the equipment used to add fluoride to the city’s water.
The city of Stuart stopped adding fluoride to the water last October. Woodside says until that time, they would use about 400 gallons every two months.
“We have telemetry that monitors the fluoride levels,” he said, pointing to a large computerized screen on the wall in another building.
He says they have about 400 gallons of fluoride stored in a large tank–a clear, odorless liquid–that they no longer need now that the Governor has signed a bill into law that bans cities from adding fluoride to the drinking water.
“More than likely, it’ll be handled properly or disposed of properly. They’ll probably bring a company in and they’ll dispose of it properly,” Woodside said.
Now that the state has banned cities and counties from adding fluoride to the drinking water, some may wonder, could a city in Florida put that question on a ballot and let the voters decide?
“If a city or county did that, they could be subject to a fine of up to $5000.00 a day and, of course, a lawsuit where the state would seek to prevent them from adding that additive fluoride to the water,” said Glen Torcivia, an attorney in West Palm Beach.
Torcivia is an attorney with more than 40 years’ experience who has represented numerous government clients.
“If you’re a city or a county that challenges the state on this and you were expecting to receive grant funds from the state, for example, to improve your water treatment plant, my guess is you can kiss that goodbye,” Torcivia said.
He says one thing’s for sure. Challenging the state on the new law banning fluoride in drinking water won’t be cheap.
“I don’t see any city challenging this unless you’re a really big city with deep pockets,” Torcivia said. “Why is that?” we asked. “Because you’re gonna be in for a battle. You’re gonna have a battle where you’re potentially being fined $5000,00 a day,” Torcivia said.
Woodside says fluoride costs the city about $1.80 a gallon.
So, the 400 gallons of fluoride they have left are worth about $720.00.
He says it does not degrade, so the company that sold the fluoride may be able to remove it from the tank and sell it to another city in another state that could use it.
We checked with some other local cities.
Stuart, Boynton Beach, Lake Worth Beach, Boca Raton, Port St. Lucie, and Jupiter are no longer adding fluoride to their water supply.
The city of West Palm Beach said in a written statement that the city has been monitoring fluoride supply levels and adjusting them where needed since November.
And the city plans to use up its inventory of fluoride by the end of June, so they won’t have any fluoride left to dispose of.
Original article online at: https://cw34.com/news/local/poll-which-states-add-fluoride-water-palm-beach-county-stuart-boynton-beach-lake-worth-beach-boca-raton-port-st-lucie-jupiter-monday-may-19-2025