Stricken language would be deleted from and underlined language would be added to present law.
1 State of Arkansas
2 95th General Assembly A Bill
3 Regular Session, 2025 SENATE BILL 2
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5 By: Senators C. Penzo, B. King
6 By: Representatives Duffield, Pilkington
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8 For An Act To Be Entitled
9 AN ACT TO REPEAL THE STATEWIDE FLUORIDATION PROGRAM;
10 TO REMOVE THE MANDATE FOR WATER SYSTEMS TO MAINTAIN A
11 FLUORIDE CONTENT; AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES.
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14 Subtitle
15 TO REPEAL THE STATEWIDE FLUORIDATION
16 PROGRAM; AND TO REMOVE THE MANDATE FOR
17 WATER SYSTEMS TO MAINTAIN A FLUORIDE
18 CONTENT.
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20 BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ARKANSAS:
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22 SECTION 1. Arkansas Code § 20-7-136 is repealed.
23 20-7-136. Statewide fluoridation program — Definition.
24 (a) As used in this section, “water system” means a facility including
25 without limitation a parent system, consecutive system, or other system that
26 holds, treats, and supplies water directly or through a consecutive system or
27 consecutive systems to five thousand (5,000) persons or more.
28 (b) The company, corporation, municipality, county, government agency,
29 or other entity that owns or controls a water system shall control the
30 quantity of fluoride in the water so as to maintain a fluoride content
31 established by the Department of Health.
32 (c) The State Board of Health shall adopt rules relating to the
33 fluoridation of water systems that shall include without limitation:
34 (1) Permissible concentrations of fluoride to be maintained by a
35 water system; and
36 (2) Requirements and procedures for maintaining permissible
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1 concentrations of fluoride including without limitation:
2 (A) Necessary equipment;
3 (B) Recordkeeping;
4 (C) Reporting; and
5 (D) Testing.
6 (d)(1) A water system required to fluoridate under this section is not
7 required to comply with the requirements of this section until funds
8 sufficient to pay capital start-up costs for fluoridation equipment for the
9 system have become available from any source other than tax revenue or
10 service revenue regularly collected by the company, corporation,
11 municipality, county, or other government agency that owns or controls the
12 water system.
13 (2) A licensed civil engineer recognized or employed by the
14 department who is familiar with the design, construction, operation, and
15 maintenance of fluoridation systems shall determine for the department
16 whether the capital start-up costs claimed under subdivision (d)(1) of this
17 section are reasonable.
18 (e) A water system for a city in this state that receives its water
19 supply from a community in another state is not required to comply with this
20 section until a substantially similar fluoridation program is enacted for the
21 water system of the community in the other state.
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