FOIA-Everett-November-2011
REQUEST FOR DOCUMENTS
UNDER THE PUBLIC RECORDS ACT
November 7, 2011
Everett Public Works Attention: Dave Davis, Director 3200 Cedar Street Everett WA 98201-4516 Also sent by fax to:
425-257-8882
Also sent by email to:
everettpw@ci.everett.wa.us; dwilliams@ci.everett.wa.us; jmoore@ci.everett.wa.us; AHatloe@ci.everett.wa.us; saffholter@ci.everett.wa.us; PRoberts@ci.everett.wa.us; rgipson@ci.everett.wa.us; DNielsen@ci.everett.wa.us; BStonecipher@ci.everett.wa.us; cwiersma@ci.everett.wa.us; rramerman@ci.everett.wa.us; kreardon@ci.everett.wa.us; cwiersma@ci.everett.wa.us
To Everett Public Works ,
I sent Everett Public Works a previous Request for Documents on July 31, 2008. See those documents at http://washingtonsafewater.com/foia/.
It is necessary to receive updates on requests I made in 2008 and ask for additional documents, and so I am sending you a new Request for Documents under the Public Records Act.
Introduction: The Public Records Act, RCW 42.56.080, Washington’s version of the federal Freedom of Information Act, requires that all agencies make public records available for copying and provide copies of public documents at a reasonable charge. When I refer to the “agency” or “water district” or “you”, I am referring to Everett Public Works, Everett Utilities, and the city of Everett. When I refer to “documents,” I am referring to reports, letters, memos, notes, e-mails, or other writings or photographs or diagrams or audio recordings in the possession of your staff, your experts, or the experts you hire to test Water District drinking water and fluoridation materials, and also documents and reports you receive from or are accessible to you from municipalities, agencies, other jurisdictions, laboratories, and suppliers of fluoridation materials. The term “documents” includes any web sites or documents on web sites which you created or rely on regarding fluoridation, pipe maintenance, and water treatment in general, including their URL and including documents on web site backups.
It is not necessary to send all documents if they are repetitive. It is acceptable to send a representative sample, provided that the sample does in fact include samples from all types or kinds of sources.
Documents already provided need not be provided again. See documents previously provided at http://washingtonsafewater.com/foia/.
Documents should be delivered in electronic format if at all possible.
Please provide the following:
1. Provide: Documents which were prepared or received in the process of initiating fluoridation, including but not limited to: requests for construction bids, requests for maintenance bids, construction and maintenance bids and contracts, bids, and documents and advice received in response to said requests – both pro and con – obtained from bidders, consultants, or other advisers regarding the fluoridation decision.
2. Regarding fluoridation facilities maintained by Everett Public Works, now or in the past, provide: All documents which relate to the design, construction, contracting to construct, cost of construction, financing of construction, financial assistance for construction of said facilities from entities other than Everett Public Works, including any agreements made with other groups, including dental associations, regarding funding of construction of fluoridation facilities.
3. Provide: All documents which show or indicate the regular operating, maintenance, and repair costs of all fluoridation facilities at Lake Chaplain and at all other locations since they were opened.
4. Provide: All documents which show or indicate the cost of all upgrades, improvements, and replacements made to all fluoridation facilities at Lake Chaplain and at all other locations since they were opened.
5. Provide: All documents and records which show and summarize the cost of buying fluoridation supplies, including but not limited to silicofluoride, sodium fluoride, calcium fluoride, sodium hydroxide, soda ash, and other fluoridation related chemicals or alkalizers – since Everett instituted fluoridation.
6. Provide: Documents which demonstrate the chemicals added to Everett water for the five year period before fluoridation was instituted and their costs. It is not necessary to submit all documents provided a representative sample covering all chemicals added is provided.
7. Provide: All documents or manuals which Everett Public Works possesses which deal with the subject of adding fluoride, alkalizers, and any other water treatment chemicals used in conjunction with fluoridation.
8. Provide: Documents and manuals describing the handling and purchase of alkalizing agents such as sodium hydroxide and soda ash or other alkalizing agents which have been added to drinking water by Everett Public Works.
9. Provide: Copies of pages of the book entitled “NSF/ANSI 60” or the equivalent, which are be in your possession or accessible to you and any documents indicating when Everett Public Works bought or obtained various editions of said document, those pages to include: cover, title page, credits page, disclaimer page, the page showing which agencies or organizations have financed, reviewed, or approved the publication, the page showing publication date, and all introductory pages of all editions.
10. Provide: Documents and records showing the number of security guards currently guarding all of Everett’s fluoridation facilities and the cost to employ them.
11. Provide: Documents and manuals describing the handling of silicofluoride or other fluoridation chemicals which have been added to drinking water by Everett Public Works since fluoridation was initiated.
12. Provide: All material safety data sheets, assays, certificates of analysis, statement or bills of lading or sale, and correspondence received from or on behalf of or sent to all suppliers of fluoridation materials since fluoridation was first initiated.
13. Provide: Documents identifying the commercial source or sources from which Everett Public Works purchases or has purchased fluoridation materials since fluoridation began, including the names of companies providing said materials, their addresses, their telephone numbers, their e-mail addresses, and the names of contact persons who represent said companies.
14. Provide: Certificates of analysis, statement or bills of lading or sale, and material safety data sheets regarding alkalizing agents such as sodium hydroxide and soda ash or other alkalizing agents which have been added to drinking water by Everett Public Works, going back five years before fluoridation was initiated and continue to the present.
15. Provide: Documents which would indicate whether or not there are any trace amounts of aluminum, arsenic, antimony, asbestos, cadmium, lead, mercury, radium, radon, polonium, barium, beryllium, thallium, or uranium included in raw fluoridation materials and in finished drinking water and the quantities and concentrations of them, including any tests done or obtained.
16. Provide: Documents pertaining to the detection levels applied to all the elements and compounds for which Everett Public Works tests, including aluminum, arsenic, antimony, asbestos, cadmium, lead, mercury, radium, radon, polonium, barium, beryllium, thallium, and uranium.
17. In my July 2008 Request for Documents (#10 and #11) I asked the following:
Provide documents which show the presence of all elements and compounds in raw fluoridation materials, that is assays made of raw fluoridation materials as they come out of the tanker, before they are added to drinking water and are diluted.
Note: I am not asking just for results of tests done on the water after fluoridation materials are added, but also tests or assays done on the fluoridation materials themselves before they are added to the water. An assay done on raw fluoridation materials right out of the tanker truck can do a much more accurate job of identifying and quantifying the many elements and chemicals in fluoridation materials. Various reasonably priced tests are sensitive only down to certain concentration levels, so a test done on raw fluoridation materials will reveal trace minerals and chemicals with much greater accuracy than one done on fluoridation materials after they are diluted in drinking water. …
Provide documents which would indicate whether there are any trace amounts of aluminum, arsenic, antimony, asbestos, cadmium, lead, mercury, radium, radon, polonium, barium, beryllium, thallium, or uranium included in said fluoridation materials and the quantities and concentrations of them.
Your response was:
Cascade Columbia or LCI are the primary sources for this information. Analysis of a June 2007 delivery was made to trouble shoot a crystallization problem that was occurring in the HFS metering pump. This has been included on the CD-ROM.
Steve Deem, an official with the Washington Department of Health (253-395-6767 steve.deem@doh.wa.gov), explained to me that Department of Health regulations do not require a water district to do an analysis on the fluoridation materials before they are diluted. This means that Everett Public Works is completely dependent on NSF and its fluoride suppliers for detailed information as to what contaminants are present in raw silicofluoride scrubber liquor but which are not detectible in drinking water after raw silicofluoride scrubber liquor has been diluted approximately 240,000 times to the point where the silicofluoride level goes from 24% to around 1 ppm.
As I have pointed out, the NSF is highly unreliable when it comes to what is in raw silicofluoride scrubber liquor, given that the NSF contradicts itself. In its February 2008 NSF Fact Sheet on Fluoridation Chemicals, http://fluoride-class-action.com/wp-content/uploads/NSF-fact-sheet-on-fluoride-2008.pdf, NSF says:
The NSF Joint Committee … consists of … product manufacturing representatives. … Standard 60 … requires a toxicology review to determine that the product is safe at its maximum use level and to evaluate potential contaminations in the product. … A toxicology evaluation of test results is required to determine if any contaminant concentrations have the potential to cause adverse human health effects. … NSF also requires annual testing and toxicological evaluation …. The NSF standard requires … toxicological evaluation.
On the other hand, NSF representatives have admitted that NSF neither performs nor obtains any such documentation. See: http://Fluoride-Class-Action.com/sham. See also http://fluoride-class-action.com/wp-content/uploads/appendix-e-stan-hazen-deposition1.pdf
The latest Standard 60 fluoride update is dated February, 2008. It does not take into account or even mention the National Research Council 2006 report. It is therefore outdated and cannot be relied on. http://www.nsf.org/business/water_distribution/pdf/NSF_Fact_Sheet.pdf.
Everett Public Works should know the contents of the raw fluoridation materials it is adding to drinking water. Because it is relying on the supplier and the unreliable NSF, it does not know.
Everett Public Works should be performing regular full quantitative assays of raw fluoridation materials straight from the delivery tanker, not down to any standard pre-set detection levels, but instead down to the smallest concentration levels obtainable, including by spectrographic analysis.
Everett Public Works should have performed such an assay in 2008, following my previous Request for Documents, because not to have done such an assay is in itself a failure to exercise due care.
Therefore, I am again requesting a full contaminant analysis including a full contaminant analysis of radionuclides. The sample must be drawn directly from an arriving fluoride tanker. The water district must instruct the tanker driver to stop at the laboratory which will be performing the assay and have the laboratory draw the sample. The sample should be taken with a dipper which extends to the very bottom of the tank to include heavier liquids and precipitates which have drifted to the bottom. The liquid fluoridation materials must be mixed thoroughly, both by having the driver of the tanker truck start and stop the truck numerous times to mix the contents of the tank, and mixed thoroughly in other ways before the test is performed.
Further, Everett Public Works should pay for the full cost of this assay of raw fluoridation materials. This is because the agency should already be doing such assays on a regular basis and therefore should have them on hand. For the agency not to be doing such full quantitative assays on a regular basis is negligent and reckless behavior.
18. Since Everett Public Works said in response to my Requests for Documents in 2008 that Cascade Columbia and LCI are the primary sources for the information discussed in the preceding Request no. 17 above, provide: Documents and materials in the possession of Cascade Columbia and LCI regarding which you have the right to obtain.
19. Provide: Documents indicating which agencies or organizations set the detection limits for all of the elements and compounds for which Everett Public Works performs tests.
20. Provide: Documents pertaining to the lowest detection level to which it is scientifically possible to assay each of the elements and compounds for which Everett Public Works tests.
21. Provide: Documents which discuss and/or justify testing down to the detection level which Everett Public Works currently tests its drinking water instead of testing down to the lowest detection level to which it is scientifically possible to assay each of the elements and compounds for which Everett Public Works tests.
22. Regarding the elements and compounds for which Everett Public Works performs or receives an assay, provide any and all documents pertaining to whether Everett Public Works could or should test for lower concentrations of said elements and compounds than it actually does and what the additional cost would be to test to lower concentrations.
23. Provide: Documents, disclosures, photos, literature, or other materials by which Everett Public Works – since fluoridation began – has notified parents that using the utility’s fluoridated water may cause dental fluorosis in their children’s teeth.
24. Provide: Documents, disclosures, photos, literature, or any other materials by which Everett Public Works – since fluoridation began – has given notice to consumers of Everett water that the water supplied by Everett Public Works contains lead and leaches lead from pipes, solder, and fittings, especially in old schools, old homes, old businesses, old apartment buildings, along with any notice given that elevated lead levels in said water caused by said water could cause harm to those drinking it.
25. Provide: Disclosure information which Everett Public Works – since fluoridation began – has sent out to its water customers about the psychological impact that fluorosis may have on children’s development, their self esteem, their later performance in job interviews, and their social skills.
26. Provide: Documents, disclosures, photos, literature, or any other materials by which Everett Public Works – since fluoridation began – has given notice to those with kidney disease that drinking Everett water could worsen the condition of their kidneys.
27. Provide: Documents disclosures, photos, literature, or any other materials by which Everett Public Works – since fluoridation began – has given notice to those with arthritic symptoms that drinking Everett water could worsen their arthritic symptoms.
28. Provide: Documents and materials which Everett Public Works – since fluoridation began – sent out to water users in languages other than English, which are otherwise responsive to Requests number 23 through 27.
29. Provide: Documents and historical records pertaining to water sources – including wells – and purification facilities utilized before Spada Lake and Lake Chaplain were used as a water sources for Everett, including wells.
30. Whereas: The law says that “public records shall be available for inspection,” and whereas the fluoridation facilities themselves are “public records” in the broadest sense of the term, therefore I request that Everett Public Works provide access to the Lake Chaplain fluoridation facility and the Smith Island laboratory facility and make them open for a tour on or before the end of November, 2011. Call me at 425-771-1110 to make arrangements.
31. Provide: Documents and correspondence received from or sent to the CDC, EPA, FDA, surgeon general, or any other agency or official of the federal government regarding fluoridation, going back to when fluoridation was first being implemented.
32. Provide: Documents and correspondence received from or sent to the Washington Department of Health or Board of Health or any agency or official of the state of Washington regarding fluoridation, going back to when fluoridation was being implemented.
33. Provide: Documents and correspondence received from or sent to the National Sanitation Foundation, the American Dental Association, or any other private or non-profit group regarding fluoridation, going back to when fluoridation was being implemented.
34. Provide: Documents discussing the means of transportation of raw fluoride scrubber liquor by truck tanker or rail tanker or other means, along with documents relating to safety, hazardous materials suits and protective methods, spill prevention, and cleanup.
35. Provide: Documents discussing any spills or malfunctions which have occurred in the handling of fluoridation materials since fluoridation began.
36. Provide: Documents identifying the protocol for adding fluoridation materials to drinking water, including but not limited to mixing and dispensing fluoridation materials into drinking water and keeping the fluoridation materials uniformly mixed over time and distance. Provide documents discussing any instances where fluoride content has not been consistent throughout the water system.
37. Regarding materials added to control acidity or pH levels of drinking water, provide: A representative sample of documents created or received from 1985 to the present identifying:
a. the specific materials added to control the acidity or pH level of drinking water,
b. the quantity of such materials added on a daily and monthly basis,
c. the locations in the system, where the acidity or pH level has been monitored,
d. the location of end use taps in houses, schools, houses, apartment buildings, commercial buildings, public buildings, manufacturing buildings within the system which have been monitored for acidity or pH level,
e. the target acidity or pH level sought throughout the water system as a result of adding such materials,
f. the actual acidity or pH levels recorded at monitored locations within the public water system,
g. the actual acidity or pH level recorded at the tap in schools, houses, apartment buildings, commercial buildings, public buildings, manufacturing buildings.
h. the means by which the acidity or pH level has been monitored,
i. how frequently the acidity or pH level has been monitored.
38. Regarding lead in drinking water throughout the water district, provide: A representative sample of documents created or received from 1985 to the present identifying:
a. specific materials added to drinking water which contain lead,
b. the quantity of such lead bearing materials added on a daily and monthly basis, including the concentration in parts per million or billion,
c. the locations in the system where lead levels are and have been monitored, including lead levels found to exist.
d. the location of houses, schools, houses, apartment buildings, commercial buildings, public buildings, manufacturing buildings within the system in which lead in drinking water is or has ever been monitored, including information on first draw lead levels and subsequent draws, including lead levels found to exist.
e. the level of lead in a public drinking water fountain which will require Everett Public Works or the Everett School District to close a fountain,
f. the maximum lead level which Everett Public Works allows to be present in raw fluoridation materials,
g. the means by which lead levels have been monitored,
h. written guidelines regarding lead levels allowed in drinking water and how to measure them.
39. Regarding arsenic in drinking water throughout the water district, provide: A representative sample of documents created or received from 1985 to the present identifying:
a. specific materials added to drinking water which contain arsenic,
b. the quantity of such arsenic bearing materials added on a daily and monthly basis, including the concentration in parts per million or billion,
c. the locations in the system where arsenic levels are and have been monitored, including arsenic levels found to exist.
d. the maximum arsenic level which Everett Public Works allows to be present in raw fluoridation materials,
e. the means by which arsenic levels have been monitored,
f. written guidelines regarding arsenic levels allowed in drinking water and how to measure them.
40. Given the fact that there are scientific and scholarly reports which conclude that fluoride is harmful to fish or repels fish, provide documents which address this issue. See: http://fluoride-class-action.com/wp-content/uploads/carol-clinch-petition-to-auditor-general-chapter-6-evidence-of-environmental-harm.pdf.
41. Provide: Documents or written orders or prescriptions in your possession or available to Everett Public Works from a medical or other health professional which authorizes Everett Public Works to add fluoridation materials to drinking water, and/or which specifies the amount to be added, and/or which specifies the specific fluoridation chemical to be added.
42. Provide: Documents or written orders or prescriptions in your possession or available to Everett Public Works from a medical or other professional which grants written assurance to the Water District that the addition of fluoridation materials to the water is safe for the general population and for special populations such as babies and those with thyroid disease, kidney disease, arthritis, and diabetes.
43. Provide: Documents or written orders or prescriptions in your possession or available to Everett Public Works from a medical or other professional which advises those who drink fluoridated water of the contraindications of doing so.
44. Provide: Documents or written orders or prescriptions in your possession or available to Everett Public Works from a medical or other professional which advises those who drink fluoridated water of possible conflicting effects from other medications being taken.
45. Provide: Documents or written orders or prescriptions in your possession or available to Everett Public Works from a medical or other professional which advises those with kidney problems of the maximum quantity of fluoridated water which they can safely consume.
46. Provide: Documents or written orders or prescriptions in your possession or available to Everett Public Works from a medical or other professional which advises pregnant women and parents of infants as to the maximum quantity of fluoridated water which a pregnant woman may consume without harming the child growing within her and the maximum quantity of fluoridated water which an infant can safely consume.
47. Provide: Documents or written orders or prescriptions in your possession or available to Everett Public Works from a medical or other professional which advises those with diabetes as to the maximum quantity of fluoridated water which they can safely consume.
48. Provide: Documents or written orders or prescriptions in your possession or available to Everett Public Works from a medical or other professional which advises those with arthritis as to the maximum quantity of fluoridated water which they can safely consume.
49. Provide: Documents or written orders or prescriptions in your possession or available to Everett Public Works from a medical or other professional which advises those with Crohn’s disease as to the maximum quantity of fluoridated water which they can safely consume.
50. Provide: Documents or written orders or prescriptions in your possession or available to Everett Public Works from a medical or other professional which advises those with who have had cancer and are trying to avoid its recurrence as to the maximum quantity of fluoridated water which they can safely consume.
51. Provide: Documents or written orders or prescriptions in your possession or available to Everett Public Works from a medical or other professional which advises those with diabetes as to the maximum quantity of fluoridated water which they can safely consume.
52. Provide: Documents or written orders or prescriptions in your possession or available to Everett Public Works from a medical or other professional which advises athletes – who drink more water than the average person – as to the maximum quantity of fluoridated water which they can safely consume.
53. Provide: Documents or written orders or prescriptions in your possession or available to Everett Public Works from a medical or other professional which advises laborers who work in the sun or exert themselves a great deal – and who therefore sweat more and drink more water than the average person – as to the maximum quantity of fluoridated water which they can safely consume.
54. Provide: Documents or written orders or prescriptions in your possession or available to Everett Public Works from a medical or other professional which advises parents regarding lead levels in drinking water and lead leached from pipes and fittings, particularly in old buildings, and which advises parents as to the amount of fluoridated drinking water containing such lead which parents may safely allow their children to consume without their children suffering reduced intelligence and other harm.
55. Provide: Documents identifying agencies, laboratories, or other organizations from which you obtain information regarding fluoridation on an ongoing basis or have obtained information in the past back to 1985 or which you now can obtain information.
56. Provide: Documents, reports, or correspondence produced, received, or sent from 1985 to the present, which relate to insurance which would cover Everett Public Works in case of a suit for damages based on harm caused by water fluoridation or lead levels caused by fluoridation, including correspondence with insurance organizations or cooperatives.
57. Provide: Documents identifying: The route of the pipe which carries water not containing added fluoride down from Spada Lake or Lake Chaplain to the point where it terminates, and identify the address at or near where said pipe terminates.
58. Provide: Documents showing a map of the pipes coming down from Spada Lake and Lake Chaplain and running throughout the area served by Everett Public Works, indicating the number of water pipes, the capacities of those pipes, and which ones carry fluoridated water and which carry water not containing fluoride.
59. Provide: Documents, including historical documents, including newspaper clippings and letters written and collected in connection with the discussion and debate over the implementation of fluoridation going back to when it was first proposed for Everett, including documents covering each time fluoridation was voted on, whether by the city council or by the public.
60. Provide: Documents relating to whether Everett Public Works should use aluminum as a flocculent, the safety of using aluminum as a flocculent and what alternatives there are to aluminum and their comparative costs.
61. Provide: Documents relating to whether Everett Public Works should use chlorine or chloramine as a disinfectant, the safety of using chlorine or chloramine as a disinfectant, and what alternatives there are and their comparative costs.
62. Provide: Documents relating to whether Everett Public Works could or should use some disinfection method other than chlorine or chloramine such as ozonation or UV disinfection, and what alternatives there are and their comparative costs.
63. In my July 15, 2008, Request for Documents I pointed out:
The silicofluoride used by Everett Public Works contains lead and leaches lead from [galvanized and] lead-brass pipe and fittings and from solder used to weld copper pipe. In light of this fact, provide documents identifying or discussing lead levels in the water system, including lead levels in the school buildings, including buildings built before 1986 when the maximum amount of lead in plumbing materials was lowered.
Provide documents identifying homes and buildings in the area served by the Water District known to have lead plumbing or plumbing containing lead solder.
Provide documents comparing lead levels in raw untreated water, lead levels in fluoridation materials, and lead levels the water [at the tap] in buildings built before and after 1986.
Provide documents giving any explanation you may have for why lead levels in water in the pipes in buildings built or after 1986 is or would be higher than in raw water and fluoridation materials. See: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/291566_lead08ww.html.
Your only answer to these questions was: “Not WFP Document”. This is not an adequate response to such an important question. If Seattle and Everett both have numerous with old schools, old houses, old apartment buildings, old commercial buildings, and old factories – most of them containing lead-brass pipes and fittings and lead solder – then Everett is just as likely as Seattle to have lead levels in first draw water in the 1,600 ppb range. A prudent person should have done additional studies in response to these questions.
Therefore, I am asking that you provide any and documents written or received since July of 2008 on this topic, as well as any documents written or received before that date but not disclosed in response to the July, 2008, Request, including documents or studies which discuss how much lead levels would drop if fluoridation were terminated.
64. In my July 15, 2008, Request for Documents I made this request:
Provide documents identifying any mechanisms known to the agency by which materials added to lessen acidity of drinking water are or can be precipitated out of water or rendered less effective at reducing the acidity of water.
Your only answer to these questions was: “Not WFP Document”. This is not an adequate response to such an important question. Materials added to lessen acidity have apparently been precipitated out or rendered less effective at raising pH, and that is clear because high lead levels have occurred in old schools in Seattle, thus allowing fluoridation materials to leach lead out of pipes and fittings.
Given these obvious facts, as demonstrated in my July 15, 2008 Requests for Documents, a prudent person should have done studies in response to this question.
Therefore, provide: Documents, letters, or memorandums written since July of 2008 identifying any mechanisms known to the agency by which materials added to lessen acidity of drinking water are or can be precipitated out of water or rendered less effective at reducing the acidity of water.
Feel free to call me if you have any questions regarding this Request for Documents.
Read this document online at:
www.WashingtonSafeWater.com/FOIA/FOIA-Everett-November-2011
Download the Word version of this document at:
http://washingtonsafewater.com/wp-content/uploads/FOIA-Everett-November-2011.doc
Sincerely,
James Robert Deal, Attorney WSBA # 8103