On Sept. 25, my family and thousands of other residents of Anson, Madison and Embden were told not to drink our tap water.

The Anson & Madison Water District had detected elevated fluoride levels. The fluoride feed was shut down, the system was flushed and a Do Not Drink order went out to roughly 2,100 service connections. The order was lifted the next day, but the fluoride feed system is still offline while the cause is investigated.

A system meant to add a measured dose of fluoride malfunctioned, and three towns could not drink from their taps. We were lucky the monitoring caught it — what if it doesn’t next time?

Last year, Rep. Jennifer Poirier’s LD 1570 would have prohibited fluoridation statewide. The Legislature did not advance it. The September incident is why it should come back — and I have asked her to reintroduce it.

No Maine family should have to wonder if their tap water is safe because of an additive the water system chose to add. Fluoride is available at the dentist, the pharmacy, in toothpaste — it doesn’t need to be in the water supply, where a malfunction can put entire towns under a Do Not Drink order.

I urge my neighbors to ask our legislators — Rep. Ducharme, Sen. Farrin, Rep. Poirier — to support a statewide ban, and I urge the Water District to release the full incident record.

Anthony Salisbury
Madison