Why waste the waste?

Why don’t we use the waste from the Kaiser-Mead Superfund clean-up project as a source of fluoride for Spokane’s proposed water fluoridation scheme?

Kaiser-Mead is a designated EPA Kaiser cleanup project site where fluoride levels in aquifer sediments have reached extremely toxic levels (102 ppm). This alarming rise in fluoride contamination of the local aquifer has prompted the Washington State Department of Ecology to order more stringent and costly remediation efforts.

One of the processes for removing excess fluoride from the zone of contamination is called “electrocoagulation”. This method involves pumping fluoride contaminated water out of the aquifer and binding it with aluminum oxides which will generate up to 1000 tons of fluoride laden sludge annually.

Why don’t we just recycle all that smelter generated fluoride right into the City of Spokane’s public water system? Oh, right, I forgot. Kaiser-Mead’s fluoride is labelled “toxic”, and we certainly don’t want to add anything toxic to our drinking water, or do we?

It may seem obvious to most of us that there are much healthier, less costly, and far less controversial ways of achieving community dental health goals than adding a known toxin to drinking water supplies.

However, if the Spokane City Council stubbornly persists in moving forward with their fluoridation plan, they should at least consider using this handy local fluoride source instead of sending our money out of state, or out of the country, in order to acquire the same toxin.

Steve Busch

Mead