Hueneme Council OKs Fluoridation at New Water Plant

Depending on your point of view, next year the water that 56,000 residents of Port Hueneme and the surrounding area drink will likely contain either hidden dangers or invisible health benefits.

The Port Hueneme City Council voted 3 to 2 Wednesday in favor of placing fluoride in the water supply provided by a new water treatment plant coming on line in 1998.

With a dominant voice on a new regional water authority, the city can ensure that its residents--as well as those in Hollywood Beach, Hollywood-by-the-Sea, Silver Strand and the two Navy bases--become the first in Ventura County to drink water that has fluoride added to it.

Health experts and government officials outnumbered residents in the sparse crowd that took part in the sometimes heated 3 1/2-hour debate.

“Evidently it wasn’t the high key issue our opponents thought it was,” said Councilman Bob Turner, a dentist and fluoride proponent. “Most people think they’re already getting fluoride. They don’t even question it.”

Naturally occurring fluoride is already in the water city residents consume, but the treatment plant will remove it, along with other impurities that have long given the water its notoriously bad taste.

Touting research showing that fluoride significantly reduces cavities, the state has mandated that large water districts add it to their water supplies.

But with no money for the mandate, many water districts have yet to follow through. And opponents argue that fluoride is a potentially dangerous substance that can harm the health of children, the elderly and pregnant women.

Councilman Jon Sharkey, who along with Toni Young voted against the water fluoridation proposal, said the decision had as much to do with politics as to do with fluoride’s supposed health benefits.

“I was disappointed in the outcome, but I wasn’t surprised,” Sharkey said. “It’s not unusual that councils have chosen to fluoridate water and that decision has been overturned subsequently. . . .I have a hard time with elected officials that are afraid to ask the people that voted for them what they think.”

The council defeated a motion to delay any decision until a town hall meeting could be held to receive more input on the proposal.

Council members also voted to direct its three members on the board of the Port Hueneme Water Agency, the entity overseeing the $15-million water treatment plant project, to vote for fluoridation if that panel takes up the issue.

But Sharkey, who is one of the trio, has said he wouldn’t vote for something he believes isn’t in the community’s best interests.

Whether the issue resurfaces depends on the action of the Channel Islands Beach Community Services District, which has the other two members on the agency board. Board President Anna Spanopoulos said the district is leaning toward opposing fluoridation and suggested that the council action could cause a political rift within the agency.

“It’s not a good precedent to use your muscle, so to speak, to direct the water agency’s proceedings,” she said. “I thought this was a partnership.”

Of the 14 people who spoke Wednesday, only three city residents unaffiliated with any government agencies spoke on the issue. Most of those attending were health experts Turner and Sharkey had invited to the meeting.