What Pasco decided after months-long debate on keeping fluoride in its water
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Pasco council voted 4-2 to end municipal water fluoridation started in 1998.
- Survey of 2,100 residents split roughly 52% keep vs 49% remove fluoride.
- Council prefers sales tax over car tab fee to fund a transportation benefit district.
After over 25 years of adding fluoride to its city water system, the Pasco City Council voted Monday to halt the practice.
The decision came despite opposition from hundreds of citizens and dental professionals who wanted fluoridation to continue.
Initially, the council voted to put the issue on the ballot next year, but that ended in a 3-3 tie because the council is currently down a member. In the end, the vote was 4-2.
Mayor David Milne, Pro-Tem Charles Grimm and councilmen Joe Cotta and Leo Perales voted to stop adding fluoride.
Councilwomen Blanche Barajas and Melissa Blasdel wanted to continue adding it.
Fluoride debate
“I still have grave concerns about the majority imposing what is really a medical procedure on the minority. I feel that is a dangerous precedent here in America,” Grimm said during the council discussion on the ballot measure.
Grimm, along with Barajas and Cotta, voted against putting the question to voters.
Milne previously told the Herald he opposed putting chemicals in water and believes fluoride is harmful to health overall. But after two public hearings and the survey, he said he was inundated with feedback and was surprised by the response.
He initially voted for putting it on the ballot, but after the tie switched to removing fluoride.
During the public comment part of Monday’s meeting, most of the six who spoke wanted the city to keep adding fluoride to protect dental health and some supported a public vote.
“If we remove fluoride from the water supply, we are devastating our at-risk youth and those families that cannot afford regular dental care,” said Bryan Verhei, a city council candidate for District 3.
Lindsay Palmer from the Benton-Franklin Health District also said she favored keeping fluoride. She is a baby and child dentistry coordinator for the health district.
Former dentist Spencer Jilek, who practiced in Pasco for 42 years before retiring, was on the Washington Dental Service Foundation Board that helped bring city fluoridated water to Pasco.
“Untreated dental disease doesn’t just affect one person,” Jilek told the council.
“It affects schools when kids can’t learn because of pain. It affects workplaces when parents miss shifts to take their children to the dentist or emergency room. It affects taxpayers because we all pay for the cost of a preventable disease.”
“If fluoridation is taken away, we’re not just turning back the clock. We’re deciding that young families will carry a heavier burden and that taxpayers will pick up the bill for needless suffering.”
One Pasco resident said she believes fluoride causes health issues and that people should be able to decide themselves what they consume.
The city would have had to pay $148,000 to put the measure on the February 2026 ballot, which will also include a question about annexing into the Mid-Columbia Libraries District.
If the ballot also included the library district and a conservation district annexation question, it would cost $161,000. It would have cost $379,000 to have a special election with fluoride on the ballot as single issue, or it could have been added it to the November 2026 ballot for $34,000.
City’s recent fluoride survey
The vote came on the heels of a recent city survey.
The survey showed a majority of the 2,100 who responded, or about 52%, favored keeping fluoride. About 49% supported removing it.
Fluoridated water has the biggest impact on low-income populations as the most equitable way to deliver preventative care, said Othello dentist Chris Dorow, the president of the Washington State Dental Association.
Franklin County, which includes Pasco, also has a majority of residents, 54%, who are Hispanic and are statistically at higher risk for tooth decay in Washington state.
Fluoride has been added to Pasco water since 1998, to reach the level that the Washington state Department of Health says is optimal. Currently, that is 0.7 parts per million, a boost from the naturally occurring level in Pasco water of about 0.2 ppm.
The push to add fluoride to Pasco water initially came from what was then the Washington Dental Service Foundation Board. Childhood tooth decay was the worst then in the state in three counties — Yakima, Adams and Franklin.
The foundation approached the Pasco City Council, which voted unanimously to begin adding fluoride to the Pasco water supply using grant money. Franklin County now meets the state average for tooth decay.
Car tab or sales tax
In other business Monday, the council is still considering creating a transportation benefit district that would pay for citywide street improvements through either a car tab fee or a sales tax increase.
In August, most of the council opposed the idea of raising sales taxes, instead favoring a car tab fee.
On Monday, council members generally opposed a car tab fee and wanted to move toward a sales tax increase.
However, there was some debate over whether the council should vote on a tax increase or propose a ballot measure for Pasco residents to say which they would prefer.
The next step would be to create the district and vote on a sales tax of up to 0.1% or an initial $20 car tab fee, or a ballot measure on the question.
The issue is expected to return to the council at its Dec. 1 meeting.
This story was originally published November 18, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
