Orange Water and Sewer Authority to resume fluoridating water after Feb. water crisis

Officials for a North Carolina water system say they're going to resume fluoridating drinking water nearly eight months after a system malfunction led to a crisis.

Posted 8:28 p.m. Oct 5, 2017 — Updated 2:32 p.m. Oct 6, 2017

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Officials for a North Carolina water system say they're going to resume fluoridating drinking water nearly eight months after a system malfunction led to a crisis.

The Herald-Sun of Durham reports the Orange Water and Sewer Authority temporarily ceased fluoridation on Feb. 2 after too much fluoride was released into the water at a treatment plant, but OWASA officials said the water with excess fluoride was never released from the plant.

"The fluoride overfeed on February 2nd was contained within our Jones Ferry Road Water Treatment Plant," OWASA spokesman Greg Feller said Friday in an email. "None of the water with elevated fluoride reached the pipe system which carries water to our customers."

After an independent review of the situation, the authority purchased new equipment and improved monitoring of the fluoride feed system at a cost of $162,000.

Fluoride levels in the water were almost 50 percent above allowed levels. A report by an outside consultant said a plant operator accidentally hit a button that caused excess fluoride to be pumped into the system, and the error wasn't corrected for more than three hours.

The operator was by himself for several hours that day because another staffer had training and a dental appointment, and the operator also had to oversee contractors at the plant, so his attention was divided, according to the report.

Restaurants and hotels were shuttered, schools in Chapel Hill and Carrboro closed early and operations at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shut down. The men's basketball game between North Carolina and Notre Dame was moved from Chapel Hill to Greensboro because of the water system's problem.

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Information from: The Herald-Sun

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