Another Twist in the Santa Fe Fluoride Debate…

A near-majority of the Santa Fe City Council announced plans Wednesday to explore putting the question of whether to add fluoride to Santa Fe’s drinking water to a popular vote.

Details are still vague, but backers indicated they’d like to see fluoride on the ballot of the 2014 municipal elections. Councilors Bill Dimas, Carmichael Dominguez, Chris Rivera and Ron Trujillo are supporting the idea.

“I see this as something that affects the entire city… Why not send it to referendum to the entire community of Santa Fe? Let them make the decision. Is it good to put fluoride in the water or is it not good?” Trujillo said.

Dimas said fluoride has “become such an issue throughout Santa Fe, on both sides.” He and other councilors have been inundated with concerns and opinions, and the issue needs to be resolved, he said.

The announcement came at a meeting of the city’s Public Utilities Committee. Councilors were scheduled to review a proposal by Councilor Chris Calver to align city water fluoride levels to the recommendations of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but to stop adding the mineral in three years. Calvert is also sponsoring an accompanying resolution endorsing “the efforts of the dental community” to collaborate with schools and others to increase dental health education, outreach and services.

Calvert said his measures – which the committee voted to move forward with no recommendation – “aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive” from the referendum proposal.

The fluoride debate has taken several twists and turns this summer. In July, the City Council, at Calvert’s urging, voted to stop adding fluoride to city water. However, the ordinance was rescinded after the city’s legal department advised the council that there wasn’t proper public notice before the council took the fluoride vote. The agenda before the July vote listed a proposal to roll back city water fluoride levels to the latest recommendation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Calvert then introduced an ordinance to stop adding fluoride to the local water supply. However, last month he pulled the measure in favor of his current proposal.

For decades, fluoride levels in Santa Fe have been set at a range of 0.80 to 1.20 parts per million, as suggested by the CDC. The CDC is now changing its recommendation for fluoride from a range – of 0.70 to 1.20 parts per million – to a set level of 0.70 parts per million.

Naturally occuring fluoride levels in Santa Fe range from 0.2 to 0.5 parts per million.