SAN MARCOS — At the request of the City of San Marcos, the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority (GBRA), operator of the City of San Marcos Water Treatment Plant (WTP), will terminate the practice of adding fluoride to the drinking water treated at the plant. Fluoride addition is planned to stop Nov. 12 and fluoride levels will drop to natural levels within a few days throughout the City distribution system.
Results of a City of San Marcos general and special charter amendment election Nov. 3 indicated voter approval of Proposition 1, directing the City not to add or require its agents to add fluoride to the San Marcos municipal water supply.
To codify the new amendment, officials will canvass votes during a Special Council Meeting at 6 p.m. Nov. 12 in the San Marcos City Council Chambers. The meeting also will be streamed live on sanmarcostx.gov and broadcast live on the City’s cable channel.
Initially Proposition 1 passed with 60.73 percent of the votes respectively. The unofficial vote tabulation did not include provisional votes.
“The City has been working expeditiously with GBRA to insure they are prepared to modify treatment by ceasing the addition of fluoride to the City’s water supply,” Tom Taggart, Director of the City of San Marcos Water-Wastewater Utility Department. “Residents should not experience any change to the water’s taste or odor,” he added.
“To be clear, the water supply has some naturally occurring fluoride. However, we will not put additional fluoride into the supply,” explained GBRA’s Jerry Sharp, manager of the San Marcos WTP.The San Marcos WTP also supplies water to other municipalities and water utilities through its I-35 pipeline. GBRA officials have notified those customers, including Kyle, Buda, Sunfield, Goforth S.U.D., and Monarch of the fluoride changes precipitated by the San Marcos vote. Sharp is notifying the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and plans to work with any of the municipalities that want to maintain the addition of fluoride in their respective water supplies by retrofitting their points of service with equipment acquired and installed through a State grant program.