Fluoride Goes Back in Water This Week in Buffalo, New York

Check the smiles in Buffalo over the next few months: teeth should be stronger now that fluoride is returning to the city’s water supply.

“Today, Buffalo Water announced that its new fluoridation system has been officially approved by the Department of Health and will resume operations next week,” the city said Saturday, September 21. “On Friday, representatives from the Erie County DOH visited the Colonel West Pumping Station and confirmed the completion of Buffalo Water’s fluoridation project, ensuring that the city’s water supplier meets all required standards. Fluoride is scheduled to be reintroduced into the city’s water supply starting Tuesday, following the delivery of fluoridation treatment materials on Monday morning.”

The water authority is “committed to providing safe and affordable drinking water to City of Buffalo residents. With the Department of Health’s approval, we are confident that the new system will allow Buffalo Water to continue providing high-quality water to the City of Buffalo,” said Buffalo Water Board Chairman Oluwole “OJ” McFoy.

As a reminder, the city had been without a fluoridated water system for about a decade before the Buffalo News reported that the important mineral found in countless public water systems across the country had been discontinued. Nothing publicly had been said about it before that time. When the lack of fluoride was brought to light, early last year, Mayor Byron Brown said he would have the system back up and running by the end of the year, but Buffalo Water didn’t get approval for the new system from the DOH until January and it wasn’t until July that the last pieces of the fluoride system were installed, including a flow meter on a 90” treated water conduit designed to measure the amount of treatment added to the drinking water supply.

The timing couldn’t be better for the city, as it recently was brought to light by WGRZ that McFoy spent 297 weekdays traveling to water conferences across the country, spending $161,900 of taxpayer dollars in 23 different states since 2016, around the same time the fluoride treatments stopped. When asked by investigative reporter Charlie Specht about his traveling, McFoy “disputed that figure” but “could not provide an estimate he thought was more accurate.” While McFoy is not paid for his responsibilities as leader of the water board, he is CEO and general manager of the city’s Sewer Authority, a job with a $130,000 salary.

The city is facing a class action lawsuit by parents for the potential dental damage and decay of their children’s teeth as a result of the lack of fluoride for the past nine years.