USA - UPDATE — Port Angeles' fluoridation survey will be done as an informal poll, won't be on the election ballot

PORT ANGELES — The fluoride question will not be posed to voters on the Nov. 3 general election ballot.

It will be too difficult to reach Clallam Public Utliity District customers who drink the city’s fluoridated water, the City Council decided Tuesday.

Instead, they decided that all city and PUD customers — including unregistered voters and businesses — will be informally polled on whether fluoridation should continue after May 18, 2016.
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That’s when a 10-year pledge to fluoridate city water expires with the Washington Dental Service Foundation.

City staff will discuss with PUD officials how the poll will be conducted, while council members will take up the issue further at their Aug. 4 meeting.

Council members had decided July 21 on a 4-3 vote to include PUD and city voters in an advisory ballot and said they wanted to include the PUD’s city water users in the vote.

The results will be non-binding.

But they will provide direction to City Council members as they face the deadline on continuing the controversial practice of adding the mineral to the city’s water supply to prevent dental disease — a practice opposed by many city residents who believe fluoridation harms them, instead.

The meeting Tuesday was a special half-hour session called to appoint chairs for and against committees on fluoridation, set informational hearing dates for the ballot measure, and adopt a resolution approving ballot language for the Nov. 3 election that the county Auditor’s Office had to have by Aug. 4......