Middletown Water Supply Hit With Accidental Fluoride Surge in November: Public Works Commissioner

The Department of Public Works Commissioner revealed an accidental overdose of fluoride in the city water supply that happened in November.

The water treatment plant in Middletown, N.Y., on Dec. 19, 2025. Oliver Mantyk/The Epoch Times

MIDDLETOWN, N.Y.—City of Middletown Commissioner of Public Works Jacob Tawil said that due to a machine input mistake, the Middletown water treatment plant had an overdose of fluoride in the water on Nov. 10.

During the city Common Council Meeting on Dec. 16, Tawil explained that a plant operator misplaced a decimal in a chemical control machine at the treatment plant, causing a significant overdose of fluoride in the city water. The incident was not reported as it should have been by the operator, and upper management at the Department of Public Works was not aware of the incident until Dec. 9.

The commissioner said that had the operator reported the incident, he and Mayor Joseph DeStefano could have flushed the overdosed water out of the system.

The department believes the extra fluoride put in the water was 44 gallons a minute over five hours. Water testing at the time, which the plant does three times a day, did not show elevated levels of the chemical, according to Tawil.

The public works department, the Orange County Department of Health, and Albany are investigating what exactly happened.

Tawil said that even though this has been the first such accident at the plant during 15 years of operation, changes have been made to prevent this type of incident again.

“No matter how many checks and balances we put in, things could happen. The idea is to catch them whenever they happen and to react and recover,” the commissioner said at the meeting.

The department changed to a smaller chemical feed pump. Should a similar mistake happen again, the effects would be much smaller. The new pump cannot pump more than 12 gallons a day of fluoride, while the city water supply needs just seven gallons. Alarms were added to the plant, as well as a new, more accountable system for changing chemical numbers.

Tawil said he has high confidence in the operators at the water plant, saying most of them have the highest level of credentials in operating a water plant. Operators need to be trained and certified by New York state before handling vital infrastructure like the water supply.

“It’s a major screw up in my opinion,” Tawil told The Epoch Times on Dec. 19.

The commissioner said he did not know why the operator made a mistake and then didn’t report it.

“It’s mind-boggling to me, this operator is a very responsible guy.”

Tawil said that repercussions for the operator responsible for the accident and the lack of reporting cannot be disclosed at the moment due to union affiliations.

Fluoride is a mineral added to water in many places in the United States. The chemical helps prevent tooth decay, but its effectiveness has dropped with the spread of fluoride toothpaste, according to a 2024 analysis. However, according to some research, fluoridated water could cause dental fluorosis, and high levels of fluoride may be linked to lower IQ.