BUFFALO, N.Y. — It took nine years, a class-action lawsuit by Buffalo parents and public pressure by area dentists and the Buffalo Common Council.
But finally, starting Tuesday, fluoride will flow in Buffalo's drinking water once again.
"This is a major milestone for us. This has been a day that we have been waiting for,” said Buffalo Water Board Chairman Oluwole “O.J.” McFoy.
McFoy made the comments during a news conference Monday at the Col. Francis G. Ward Pumping Station, where the first tanker truck containing fluoride passed through the gates.
The delivery marked the end of a long-awaited construction project that will put fluoride in the water for the first time since 2015.
The city quietly stopped adding fluoride to its water nine years ago when it tried to switch from a powder to a liquid distribution system. But the city did not do much to announce it publicly – aside from putting it in fine print in a water quality document on its website – until Investigative Reporter Charlie Specht discovered the oversight in January 2023.
Parents of city children then filed a class-action lawsuit against the water board, seeking damages for dental surgeries their children needed to undergo.
“There’s many stories of young children who have ended up in Children’s Hospital needing emergency dental surgery,” said Robert Corp of Lipsitz Green Scime Cambria, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Buffalo parents.
McFoy, who was appointed by Mayor Byron W. Brown, was asked Monday whether he owed residents an apology for not notifying the city that the water was not fluoridated for several years.
“Again, we take our public health responsibility seriously,” McFoy said.
McFoy did not directly answer that question, but Corp said “irreparable” harm has been done and this development will not stop the lawsuit from moving forward.
“From that perspective, certainly the damage has been done and the lawsuit continues apace,” McFoy said.
That didn’t seem to worry McFoy.
“We will vigorously and aggressively defend every decision that we’ve made here because we know that we are on the side of public health,” McFoy said.
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