Marathon to resume water fluoridation
By Casey Krautkramer
The village of Marathon will soon return to fluoridating its water after discontinuing a failed pilot study and accepting a settlement from a company that was unable to gets is treatment system to work properly.
Village administrator Steve Cherek informed the village’s utility commission at its meeting last week Wednesday that, based on village board policy, the water utility needs to restart its old system of adding liquid fluorosilicic acid to its water. The village stopped fluoridating its water in the fall of 2023 after discontinuing a water fluoride pilot study it began in 2022 after unsuccessfully attempting to get KC industries’ New Wave Fluoridation tablet-based fluoride treatment system to work.
Cherek said a few weeks ago he cashed the $24,721 settlement check from KC Industries after the village sued the company to recoup its expenses after the company wouldn’t honor its warranty on the New Wave Fluoridation System. The Wisconsin DNR never approved a heat exchanger needed to properly heat up the fluoride tablets so they could dissolve evenly in the village’s water system.
The total cost of the fluoridation project was $62,184, which included Strand Associates engineering services, he said. Cherek said the village spent $36,488 on the project while the state Department of Health Services (DHS) awarded the village with a $25,696 grant. He said the village gets to keep the DHS grant money as long as it returns to its old system of fluoridating the water.
Cherek said the village will need to use some of the settlement money it received from KC Industries to return to its old system of fluoridating the water.
Ken Bloom, director of public works and utilities, said the village needs to purchase a scale for approximately $1,000 for the fluoride because the scale that was previously used is now being used for chlorine. He said the village also needs to spend approximately $8,000 on programming the old fluoride distribution system into its SCADA system to monitor the treatment process.
Cherek said the village can start fluoridating the water right now without having to build a separate chemical room. He said it’s possible there could be some grant money in the future for the village to construct a separate room to house fluorosilicic acid apart from the other chemicals.
Cherek told the commission that it could also make a recommendation in the future to the village board to stop fluoridating the water. Commissioner Bruce Bohr said it would be wise of the village to wait on making a final decision for the future.
“The whole question of whether to put fluoride in the water is one of national concern right now,” he said. “My opinion is that we should start the system back up again, being in the situation that we are in, and perhaps we just need to revisit the whole fluoride question probably after a year when things settle down. Are there other communities in the state that are considering not fluoridating their water? Because I don’t think we need to be the leader in this. We can see where this ends up with some other communities and see where it goes in a year.”
Bloom said the public can watch Wausau Water Works meetings on YouTube to gather more information on the city of Wausau’s consideration to opt out of adding fluoride to its water. Cherek said the village of Plover is also considering removing fluoride from its water, and the city of Wisconsin Rapids thought about removing fluoride from the water but then decided to continue adding it.
Village president Kurt Handrick noted that he grew up in the country drinking well water without fluoride and he is currently 60 years old without any dental problems. By comparison, someone he knows lives in a city, drinks fluoridated water and yet already has dentures at age 30.
Bohr said he would like Marathon residents to receive both sides of the argument on water fluoridation before the village possibly makes a decision in the future.
“I have been reading about this for the last year or so,” he said. “We had a very strong opinion from our local dental people, and it seems like the national trend is the dental people are strongly in favor of fluoride. It seems like there’s no question about it that it helps reduce cavities, but what we haven’t had here is a presentation from the medical community that says it reduces the IQ of people, and we need to get some input from the other side of this argument, so there are two sides to the argument. As a group here we’ve pretty much only heard one side of the argument.”
Other business
■ Cherek said the village tested one of the lead service water laterals that it discovered last year and the level of lead in it was well below the the standard for contamination. Bohr said the village should test the other lead service water line and, if the lead level is also below the level of contamination, then it should be up to the homeowner to decide. If the water samples show a high level of lead , then he’s all for the village paying to replace Bloom said the village will continue to sample water in the two water lines for the DNR.
■ Cherek said village utility workers discovered a water main break on First Street, between Hickory and Washington streets near County Materials, while plowing snow on Feb. 8. He said it cost the village $5,828 to fix the break, and an asphalt patch still needs to be placed. Commissioners agreed with Cherek that a fire hydrant that was damaged about five years ago when someone turned it the wrong way should be replaced on that street. Cherek said the village has budgeted $5,000 to replace just one fire hydrant this year.
■ Commissioners agreed to continue paying Miltrim Farms in Athens for phosphorous credits despite the village not needing as many credits this year now that its new wastewater treatment plant has reduced its phosphorus output. Cherek said the phosphorous payment to Miltrim Farms is only $11,489 this year, compared to $25,051 last year. Bloom said the village could probably spend the $11,489 on chemicals to reduce the phosphorous level even further, but it’s a good idea to keep its arrangement with Miltrim Farms going in the future.
■ The commission directed Bloom to file
See COMMISSION/ page 9 Commission
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a wastewater treatment plant closure report with the DNR. The commission also added another $10,000 to a contract with Strand Associates after the DNR required the utility to submit a second report on what the village is doing with slag material at the plant site.
Cherek said the village’s $13,562 in savings on phosphorous credits this year can be used to pay for the additional $10,000 needed to pay Strand Associates for the unexpected second report on what the village did with the slag on the land for the new wastewater treatment plant.
■ Cherek told the commission that the village budgeted $20,000 this year for the welding repair of the well at the top of the water tower. The well is the water fill pipe that allows treated water to enter the tank from the water treatment plant.
He said Lane Tank Co. inspected the water tower and found that it also needs to be repainted, pushing the total cost up to $120,000 for the project. Cherek told the commissioners about the possibility of the village combining the projects together this summer so it can afford to have the water tower repaired and repainted either this fall or next year.
