Oviedo officials say fluoride analyzers repeatedly failed; council asks staff to notify elected officials during outages

City officials told the Oviedo City Council on March 3 that fluoride dosing equipment at the city’s water plant experienced repeated analyzer and level-indicator failures, leaving dosing off for extended stretches in 2024 and creating a communication gap with the public and elected leaders.

In a presentation at the start of the meeting City Manager Brian Cobb said he “personally take[s] responsibility” for how the situation was handled and confirmed staff would provide a fuller timeline and follow-up. Cobb said what staff had previously shared in emails was accurate and that there was never a safety or health violation from the outages.

Public works staff and plant operators described the technical sequence: an inline analyzer measures fluoride in the raw water, a SCADA-controlled tank level indicator feeds a fluoride pump, and a second analyzer and manual bench sampling verify dosing before water enters the distribution system. As public-works presenter Steve Stewart explained, “It doesn’t include the entire plant and how the plant operates. It’s strictly…