Sometimes, two seemingly totally unrelated events come together to show a larger, more important story that needs to be told. Recently, settlements were made in the Flint water contamination case. In case you have forgotten, the City of Flint was under receivership by the state of Michigan from 2011 to 2015. During this time, Emergency Managers appointed by the state decided to slash costs by changing the source of the city’s municipal water after costs were raised by the equally cash strapped Detroit water department, the source of the city’s drinking water at the time. Their county was in the process of opening up a new water treatment facility, but that was several years from completion. The Emergency Manager’s decision was to reopen a mothballed facility in Flint to use the local Flint River (instead of Lake Huron) as their local water source.
This decision led to the Flint Water Crisis, which was a national news story through from April 2014 through 2015. The source and treatment facility change exposed residents to lead levels that were far above the safe levels determined by the US Environmental Protection Agency. Lead is unsafe at any level and the levels that were being reported were high, but it was the immediate spike in detected lead and not the high levels that got the notice of the media. In fact, as we have reported previously, many older cities (including Buffalo) have higher levels of lead in home drinking water.
Lead is not the unrelated connection for this story. Buffalo found out near the end of a January 2023 Buffalo Water report:
INFORMATION ON FLUORIDE ADDITION – Our system is one of the many drinking water systems in New York State that provides drinking water with a controlled, low level of fluoride for consumer dental health protection. According to the United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC), fluoride is very effective in preventing cavities when present in drinking water at a properly controlled level. Currently there is an interruption to fluoride addition due to ongoing capital improvements associated with upgrades to our fluoride system. Since June 22, 2015 fluoride has not been added to your drinking water, and we do not expect fluoride addition to be restored until completion of various capital projects. You may want to discuss this with your family dentist to see if some other form of fluoride supplement should be considered for your dental protection.
Yes, the fluoride that prevents cavities and tooth decay has been missing from water delivered to city residents for nine years. After that report came out, the Buffalo Water Authority (BWA) told the Common Council that fluoride treatments will resume by August, but has not explained the delay beyond the need for “system upgrades.” Closer inspection of their annual reports would have identified this earlier. In 2018, the BWA report stated “we do not expect fluoride addition to be restored until December, 2018.” Two class action lawsuits have been filed against the City of Buffalo and the Buffalo Water Authority, with damages expected to exceed $160 million dollars.
Here’s the connection: In the Flint Water Crisis, Veolia, a company that manages drinking water plants throughout the world, was brought in as an engineering firm consultant to manage the new water distribution system. They recently agreed to a $25 million settlement to resolve a federal class action case related to their work in Flint. This is the same company that is managing the Buffalo Water Authority’s water plant.
More questions than answers remain. Mainly what led to the supposed nine years of “system upgrades?” And will we be notified when/if fluoride is added back in Buffalo’s water? In the meantime, if you live/work in the City of Buffalo and drink the water, as the January 2023 Buffalo Water report states: minimally, “You may want to discuss this with your family dentist to see if some other form of fluoride supplement should be considered for your dental protection.”
Lead image: Photo by mrjn Photography
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