PORT ANGELES — An overflow audience — many people wearing buttons showing support or opposition — listened for nearly four hours Wednesday night as the two sides in the fluoridation debate presented their arguments to the City Council.
The two-day hearing is an appeal of the city Community Development Department’s March ruling that fluoridation of the city’s water supply — as voted by the City Council more than a year earlier — would pose no significant environmental threat.
Fluoridation opponents are trying to get the March finding overturned by having the City Council order an environmental-impact report.
The public hearing continues for another four hours tonight with possibly the last of the city’s witnesses, then cross-examination of witnesses and council questions will begin.
Each side’s witnesses sat in separate sections of the audience Wednesday. Their attorneys and City Council members looked back at each other over stacks of documents and binders.
The public hearing will continue today at 6 p.m. in the council chambers of City Hall, 321 E. Fifth St.
The seven-member City Council has not indicated whether it intends to decide the issue tonight or adjourn for deliberation and make its decision later.