Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin has been a harsh critic of Central Alabama Water since its inception.
Last week's announcement that the utility would stop adding fluoride to the water was no exception, prompting a quick and strong response.
The issue: three of the system's four plants were already offline before the new board was created. However, the Birmingham Water Works Board — the same board Woodfin is suing to have reinstated — never informed anyone.
"Central Alabama Water just took fluoride out of your drinking water because they decided public health was optional," Woodfin said last week. "But once again, the people now running Central Alabama Water are choosing politics, cost-cutting, and culture war nonsense over the actual well-being of the people they serve."
The timeline of fluoride changes doesn't align with Woodfin's response and goal of reinstating those responsible.
The Western Filter Plant stopped fluoridating on March 18, 2024, over two years ago. The Carson Filter Plant stopped fluoridating on August 23, 2023, and the Putnam Filter Plant stopped fluoridating on January 7, 2023.
SEE: Central Alabama Water moves to stop adding fluoride to drinking water; Woodfin irate about change
A spokesman for Central Alabama Water noted that those changes were made "due to lack of maintenance and all prior to Act No. 2025-297 being enacted."
The Alabama Legislature passed Senate Bill 330 (SB330) on May 1, 2025. Governor Kay Ivey signed the bill into law on May 7, 2025, as Act 2025-297. On June 24, 2025, the board voted to do business as Central Alabama Water.
A review of minutes posted on the Central Alabama Website, as well as news coverage of Birmingham Water Works, confirms that there is no record of the Board providing any public notice when those systems were taken offline.
"Once CAW's leadership team learned that only Shades Mountain Filter Plant's fluoridation system was the only one functioning, they realized it wouldn't be right to have only part of the system fluoridated when we couldn't afford to repair the other three plants for at least two years," the spokesman told 1819 News in a statement.
These revelations mean that residents in Birmingham have not had any fluoride in their water for years.
As expected, when the news broke Friday evening, Woodfin took to social media. Rather than correcting his position, he doubled down.
"Dear new water works board, stop playing in our face," Woodfin said. "Jeffrey Thompson was Assistant General Manager of Operations and Technical Services from 2019 through December 2023. He was responsible for managing water treatment filtration plants. Therefore, he should have known two fluoride systems were not operational and should have notified the board and the public. Tim Harris was over water treatment plants, and he's now a deputy chief under Thompson."
"In October 2024, there was a complete and detailed review of plant operations, which identified 20 plant projects that were necessary for efficient operations. Two fluoride feed projects were included in that list," Woodfin said.
1819 News reached out to Central Alabama Water for a response.
"Thompson and Harris requested repairs to the filter plants' fluoride systems. However, the capital budget was not under Operations & Technical Services under the BWWB's organizational structure. It was a BWWB decision, not a decision by one of them," a spokesman said, adding that "Thompson was at BWWB from November 2019 through May 2023."
In addition, Woodfin's original post acknowledged a system loss statistic that is also attributable to the former board.
"This system is losing 53% of the water it treats to leaks and unbilled customers. More than half," he wrote without acknowledging that the problem was inherited by the previous board. L
Editor's note: The article has been updated to reflect that three of the system's four plants were already offline before the new board was created.
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