Madison Utilities Board votes to stop adding fluoride to public water, citing cost and regulatory uncertainty

MADISON CITY — The Madison Utilities Board voted March 17, 2025, to discontinue adding fluoride to the city’s public water supply, with the change scheduled to take effect June 16, 2025.

The board’s attorney, Woody Sanderson, told residents at a public meeting that the board made the decision after engineers identified roughly $450,000 in additional capital costs to add fluoride-handling systems to the King water treatment plant and because of employee safety and changing federal and state guidance. “The board has now chlorinated water for 35 years,” Sanderson said, adding the board voted to remove fluoride and proceed with the King Plant project without including a fluoride facility in that renovation.

The decision matters because fluoridation has been a public-health policy in the United States for decades and because local removal affects access to a fluoride delivery method that some health authorities say reduces tooth decay. Madison’s board said the choice is discretionary: no federal or state law currently obliges the utility to add fluoride, and the board relied on engineers’ estimates and legal advice in reaching its decision.

Board leaders and utility managers cited three practical reasons for the…