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PENINSULA DAILY NEWS January 21 21,, 2016 | 75¢
Port Angeles-Sequim-West End
Fluoride fight flares up Clallam board planning a study BY ROB OLLIKAINEN PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
PORT ANGELES — As the debate over water fluoridation in Port Angeles rages on, the Clallam County Board of Health will step back and take a broader look at oral health countywide. Clallam County Commissioner and health board member Mike Chapman broached the fluoride subject Tuesday, saying the City Council should listen to its constituents and find alternatives to municipal water fluoridation. “People are really upset,” said Chapman, a city resident and self-described fluoride agnostic. “The City Council has to do something. They have to do something or they’re going to have anarchy on their hands.”
PA council voted 4-3 The council voted 4-3 later Tuesday to reaffirm its decision to continue systemwide fluoridation despite strong objections from public speakers. Members of the council voted 6-1 — with Deputy Mayor Cherie Kidd opposed — to direct staff to explore forming an ad-hoc committee to study alternatives to citywide fluoridation. “We actually have a key role,” Chapman told his fellow health board members before the City Council convened. “If we were truly serious about oral health, we would offer to the city to take the lead on a countywide issue.” While the Board of Health has taken no position on city fluoridation, Health Officer Dr. Christopher Frank testified in support of municipal water fluoridation at the City Council meeting. “I think the science is clearly on that side,” Frank told the health board. Oral health was identified as one of the county’s top health priorities in 2012. Dr. Jeanette Stehr-Green, chair of the Board of Health and a proponent of fluoridated drinking water, agreed to schedule a discussion on the “bigger issue” of oral health at next month’s health board meeting. TURN
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KEITH THORPE/PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
Fluoride opponents fill the hallway and stairs outside the City Council chambers at Port Angeles City Hall on Tuesday night. fluoridation decision, opponents began collecting signatures to change the form of city government in a manner that the same city staffers said could hurt the city’s overall reputation and financial standing, as well as deny citizens homerule authority. The petition would require 477 signatures to be put on the ballot. At the meeting were about 200 peoBY PAUL GOTTLIEB ple, mostly fluoridation opponents, who PENINSULA DAILY NEWS poured out of the council chambers and PORT ANGELES — Four City Coun- crowded the steps to City Hall’s second cil members are standing firm on the floor. decision to continue fluoridation of the Petition organizers municipal water system, overriding a survey of water users and a recommenPetition organizers were reacting to dation broadly supported by nine depart- Mayor Patrick Downie, Deputy Mayor ment heads to stop the fractious prac- Cherie Kidd and council members Dan tice. Gase and Brad Collins voting in the Within minutes of the vote Tuesday majority again to reaffirm the city’s comnight to reaffirm the council’s December mitment — though not under contract
City will also look at options in committee
— to treat the city’s water with 0.7 parts per million of fluorosilicic acid through June 2026. Council members Lee Whetham, Sissi Bruch and Michael Merideth were opposed. The vote was similar to the 4-3 decision Dec. 15 to continue fluoridation, when then-Mayor Dan Di Guilio, who was replaced by Merideth, also voted no.
Ad-hoc committee Council members did vote 6-1 Tuesday to form an ad-hoc committee to examine fluoridation alternatives and directed staff to come back with more information. Kidd voted no, saying she did not have enough information to make a decision. TURN
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Mammoth fossil emerges near bay bluffs Sequim museum display planned BY ALANA LINDEROTH OLYMPIC PENINSULA NEWS GROUP
SEQUIM — The eroding bluffs surrounding Sequim Bay are providing a peek into times long since past — 50,000 to 100,000 years ago. While walking state Department of Natural Resources-owned tidelands east of Sequim early this month, local residents discovered a partial skull of what’s likely a Columbian mammoth emerging from the sandy wall. Since the discovery of the fossil, officials with the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture have been working to col-
Your Peninsula
lect the specimen for conservation and further analysis. “The fossil likely represents a Columbian mammoth — Mammuthus columbi — as that’s the species typically found in this part of Washington,” Christian Sidor, Burke Museum curator of vertebrate paleontology, said. “The Columbian mammoth is the state fossil of Washington.” Sidor and colleagues were able to collect the last of the remains Monday. “The fossil is currently undergoing conservation in our lab,” Sidor said. “Once it is stabilized, documented and preliminarily
studied, the Sequim Museum [& Arts Center] is interested in displaying the specimen. My goal is to work with the local museum to get the fossil on display soon.” The exact age of the mammoth hasn’t been determined, but based on its size, it’s estimated to be an adult. The rocks surrounding the specimen date back between 50,000 and 100,000 years ago and represent a gravelly riverbed — giving hints as to why only the skull became unearthed. “It follows that the animal must have died close to the river, been swept in or scavenged, and DAVID BROWNELL/JAMESTOWN S’KLALLAM TRIBE then its skull was eventually bur- A partial skull of what’s likely a Columbian mammoth ied,” Sidor said. emerges from eroding bluffs surrounding Sequim Bay in TURN TO FOSSIL/A5 early January.
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