HIGHTSTOWN — Some people expressed concern this week after reading a notification on the borough’s website stating that fluoride had been discontinued in the drinking water supply since September 2010.
“The borough did notify a Department of Environmental Protection field inspector in September 2010 that it was discontinuing (the addition of) fluoride to the water,” said Press Officer Lawrence Hajna of the DEP. “The field inspector did not realize that this triggered public notification. The public notification requirement comes from another part of the DEP, the Bureau of Safe Drinking Water.”
He said that not many purveyors in New Jersey fluoride and it’s very infrequent that a water supplier decides to stop adding fluoride.
Still, he said, “The DEP requires water system operators to advise the public when it stops fluoridating water . . . it is important for the public to know whether or not drinking water is fluoridated so they can make good decisions about dental care products with fluoride.”
Fluoridation is not required in New Jersey, he explained.
“There are about two dozen water systems that fluoridate in New Jersey,” Mr. Hajna said. “Situations in which water systems stop fluoridating happen very rarely. When they do, we tell the system to notify the public, but this is not contained specifically within our regulations.”
The Borough Council launched in investigation, led by Council Members Robert Thibault and Susan Bluth, at Monday’s council meeting, Mayor Steven Kirson told the Herald on March 20.
He said it will be determined, “Why weren’t folks notified?”
Mayor Kirson said there was a problem with the “information flow.”
Mr. Kirson was elected mayor in 2010 and began his first term in January of 2011. He was preceded by Mayor Robert Patten.
To learn more on fluoride operations in New Jersey, visit www.nj.gov/dep/watersupply/fluoride_pws.pdf.

