A Jefferson County Circuit Judge is ordering Alabama’s largest water utility to restore fluoride to its drinking water supply while a lawsuit filed by the city of Birmingham makes its way through the court system.
Circuit Judge Frederic Allen Bolling granted a temporary restraining order Monday requiring Alabama’s largest water utility to resume fluoridation at all treatment facilities it operates.
Impact of removing fluoride from drinking water
“While we acknowledge there are strong opinions about fluoride in drinking water, this decision is based on our operational, safety and financial needs,” CEO Jeffrey F. Thompson said at the time. “This change reduces chemical handling risks for our employees, eliminates the use of aging equipment and allows us to focus resources on delivering safe, reliable and exceptionally high-quality drinking water.”
The city sued, arguing the utility violated Alabama law requiring 90 days’ notice to the State Health Officer before making permanent changes to fluoridation.
Court finds violation of state law
Bolling said the utility showed “blatant disregard” for state law by removing fluoride without providing the mandatory notice.
Alabama Code § 22-23-21 requires public water systems to notify the State Health Officer at least 90 days before initiating permanent changes to fluoridation status. The law also states that systems failing to provide proper notice “shall resume the fluoridation of its water supply to its previous level until proper notice is provided.”
The judge said the city demonstrated immediate and irreparable harm to Birmingham and its citizens and said calculating health-related damages from the fluoride removal would be “difficult, if not impossible, to determine.”
Water utility must act with ‘all deliberate speed’
Bolling ordered Central Alabama Water to bring all water supplies into compliance “with all deliberate speed.”
“If equipment needs to be ordered, ORDER IT. If extra work hours need to be approved, APPROVE THEM,” Bolling wrote in the order.
The order applies to every drinking water treatment facility managed, operated or controlled by the defendants, not just the Shades Mountain facility.
The temporary restraining order took effect at 2:30 p.m. Sunday and remains in place through 5 p.m. April 2. A hearing on a preliminary injunction is scheduled for noon April 2.
The CAW spokesperson said all of the plants stopped fluoridating water due to a lack of maintenance and all were prior to Act No. 2025-297 being enacted which is the act that restructured the water board.
According to the CAW spokesperson, there is no record that the Birmingham Water Works Board provided any notice to the public when they took those systems offline.
“Once CAW’s leadership team learned that only Shades Mountain Filter Plant’s fluoridation system was the only one functioning, they realized it wouldn’t be right to have only part of the system fluoridated when we couldn’t afford to repair the other three plants for at least two years,” wrote the CAW spokesperson.
“It’s important to realize that pretty much no one in Birmingham has had any fluoride in their water for two years. This was done by BWWB before CAW was created and with no public notification so that people could consult with their dentists.”
Central Alabama Water spokesperson John Matson told WBRC the utility doesn’t comment on pending litigation.
