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The Citizens for Blount County's Future group is using legal tactics in its campaign to block plans for South Blount County Utility District to again fluoridate its water supply.

Knoxville attorney Thomas Mabry, who has been retained by the group, sent a letter to members of the SBCUD Board of Directors, County Mayor Jerry Cunningham and the Blount County Commission. In the letter, Mabry sets out a legal argument that SBCUD customers have not been properly notified of the potential health risks of fluoridation

"No one has spoken as to the safety of the actual product, the hydrofluorosilic acid, that would be placed into the water supply," he said during a telephone interview on Thursday.

"What we are asking is for the utility district, for the health department or some entity in Blount County responsible for these matters to tell the public, with scientific basis, what are the long-term effects of hydrofluorosilic acid on human beings who consume that product as part of the water supply."

Tom Abbott, vice president of the SBCUD board, said he couldn't speak for the other directors but that "I think that we're going to have to ask for some legal advice about this."

The letter has no legal authority, but the group could file a lawsuit.

"That's a possibility depending on what the utility district decides to do," Mabry said. "In other words, we are asking the utility district to do due diligence in response to the chemical they intend to place in the water supply."

Whether the utility district's board could be held liable, under this argument, is far from certain, according to Alex Long, associate professor of law at the University of Tennessee. He teaches tort law.

"There is probably going to be a higher standard that plaintiffs would have to establish in order to hold board members liable," he said. "Government officials like that generally enjoy some immunity. The plaintiffs would have a tough row to hoe there in terms of liability, but it's not out of the question."

Mabry's argument also invokes the legal concept of "learned intermediary," which might not apply.

"The learned intermediary rule typically only applies to physicians and medical professions," Long said. "That's the way it is normally stated. I don't know if the board would qualify as actual learned intermediaries."

In any case, plans for the district to begin fluoridation around the first of May are still on-going unless the Board of Directors votes otherwise, said Assistant Manager Al Scott.

In a Dec. 5 letter to District Manager Henry Durant, Cunningham wrote that he would not be willing to appoint an individual to the utility's Board of Directors unless he was sure the person would support fluoridation. The board ultimately voted Jan. 2 to begin fluoridation as soon as possible.

"The whole board felt pressured when he said he wouldn't sign to put a board member back on unless they supported fluoridation," Abbott said. "At that time, we had fought this thing (fluoridation) quite a bit, but we had other things we wanted to concentrate on getting done."

The addition of fluoride to the water supply, a procedure to reduce dental cavities that is in widespread use around the country, has been the subject of local controversy since the board voted not to fluoridate the water when the district opened its new plant in July 2004.