PORT ANGELES — A telephone line problem has delayed the start of fluoridating the city’s water supply until probably Wednesday.
“Everything is ready to go with the exception of the phone line so we can test the system,” said Mike Puntenney, deputy director of operations for public works.
“It’s not even turned on yet because we are spending significant time to make sure it works the way it should,” he said.
Fluoridation of the city’s water supply involves adding between 0.7 and 1.2 parts per million of fluoride to the city’s water supply, monitored daily.
The fluoridation must continue for a minimum of 10 years, according to a contract signed in March 2005 with the Washington Dental Service Foundation, which paid $260,000 to build a fluoride treatment facility.
The city is responsible for maintaining the system at a cost of about $10,000 annually.
Fluoridation — touted by dentists and other medical professionals as a tooth decay-preventative — was scheduled to begin either late Monday or early today, but Puntenney said the start-up now probably will occur Wednesday.
Meanwhile work continues on the telephone lines that carry control signals for the fluoridation plant at the city’s landfill site, he said.
“Qwest has been working on it all day today [Monday]. It could be done by Tuesday,” Puntenney said.
“But by the time we do a system shakedown, it’s probably going to be Wednesday.
“It’s important that we do that before move on to the next step,” Puntenney said.