Back to Fort Fairfield Journal WFFJ-TV Contact Us
Fort Water Rates Set to Increase 35 Percent
Water District Wastefully Dumping Over $2,500 worth of Fluoride per year into the Sewer
By: David Deschesne
Fort Fairfield Journal, January 31, 2018
The Fort Fairfield Utilities District (FFUD), which enjoys the monopoly on water and sewer in the town limits of Fort Fairfield, will be requesting a 35 percent across the board rate hike on its residential, commercial and industrial customers this Spring.
The rate hike represents an increase of over $105,000 to be gleaned from the people in Fort Fairfield by a Utility District that has a hard time even getting its meter readings correct from one billing period to the next.
The FFUD pro forma expense statement, plus debt, for 2018 shows a total of $456,514, up $16,000 from 2016. The rate increase will bring them an estimated $536,146 in revenue—or $80,000 more than they need to pay their bills.
The biggest cost driver is for materials, parts and supplies to cover deficiencies with the well chemical feed building and treatment plant.
One of the chemicals wastefully added to the water in Fort Fairfield, which has nothing to do with water treatment, is fluoride. The form of fluoride FFUD uses is called Hydrofluorosilicic acid, an environmental pollutant derived from the smokestack scrubbers of petrochemical fertilizer plants, which began being added to Fort’s water in the 1950s.
FFUD spent $2,706 to fluoridate the water in Fort Fairfield in 2016, ostensibly to “prevent tooth decay.” However, fluoride has only shown to be 25% effective, at best, and is never supposed to be ingested since it attaches so readily to the calcium in bones and teeth, causing teeth mottling and osteoporosis.
Most of Fort Fairfield’s town water is used to wash dishes, laundry, cars, take baths and showers, flush toilets and supply the fire hydrants in town with water. Very few people in Fort Fairfield who are on town water actually drink it, due to its inferior taste and sedimentation issues. They choose to buy spring or bottled water, instead. Ergo, nearly 99% of the fluoride put into the town’s water ends up being flushed into the sewer—not to “prevent tooth decay” as the fluoride-industrial complex’s propaganda proclaims. Since most people now get their fluoride from toothpaste and mouthwash, this wasteful practice of water fluoridation represents over $2,500 per year worth of fluoride bypassing humans altogether ending up in the sewer system. Since fluoride is intended to affect the human body, not the water it is placed in, it is classified as a drug. However, the FFUD doesn’t have any medical doctors on hand, nor do they monitor the daily intake of fluoride in those water users who still actually drink their water to make sure they are not being overdosed on the drug.
In addition to increasing the rates on water usage, FFUD is also planning at least a 20 percent increase on wastewater rates, as well. However, Rates to the town for water in the fire hydrants will decrease by nearly $1,500 per year.
Houlton Water Company currently has the lowest rates in the County, with Fort Fairfield in the number two slot. This rate increase will move Fort Fairfield to fourth position. Limestone currently has the most expensive water rates in the County—over three times as much as Fort Fairfield’s.
A public hearing on the proposed rate increase will be held February 13 at 6:00 p.m. at the Fort Fairfield Council Chambers in the Fort Fairfield Municipal Building. After the public hearing, the proposed rate increase would have to be approved by the Public Utilities Commission in Augusta.
Anyone who has a problem with Fort Fairfield Utilities District, and cannot get it solved locally, are encouraged to contact the Public Utilities Commission in writing via mail at: Maine PUC, State House Station #18, Augusta, Maine 04333-0018.