UTAH

State to ban fluoride in drinking water

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah will become the first state to ban fluoride in public drinking water, despite widespread opposition from dentists and national health organizations.

Republican Gov. Spencer Cox was set to sign legislation that bars cities and communities from deciding whether to add the mineral to their water systems.

Fluoride strengthens teeth and reduces cavities by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The addition of low levels of fluoride to drinking water has long been considered one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century.

Government researchers have found that community water fluoridation prevents about 25% of tooth decay.

The ban comes weeks after federal health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has expressed skepticism about water fluoridation, was sworn into office.

Utah lawmakers who pushed for a ban said putting fluoride in water was too expensive. Its Republican sponsor, Rep. Stephanie Gricius, acknowledged fluoride has benefits, but said it was an issue of “individual choice” to not have it in the water.

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Cox said that like many people in Utah, he grew up and raised his own children in a community that doesn’t have fluoridated water.

More than 200 million people in the U.S., or about 63% of the U.S. population, receive fluoridated water through community water systems.

A Utah teenager who urged lawmakers to pass the bill described suffering a medical emergency when the fluoride pump in Sandy, Utah, malfunctioned in 2019, releasing an excessive amount of the mineral into the drinking water. The fluoride sickened hundreds of residents and led many in Utah to push for its removal.

Out of the 484 Utah water systems that reported data to the CDC in 2024, only 66 fluoridated their water, an Associated Press analysis showed. The largest was the state’s biggest city, Salt Lake City.

WYOMING

State expands ultrasound requirement

CHEYENNE — Women planning pill abortions in Wyoming will need to get an ultrasound after lawmakers overrode the governor’s veto of the law.

The March 5 22-9 vote by the state Senate followed a 45-16 vote by the House a day earlier to override. In vetoing the bill, Republican Gov. Mark Gordon questioned whether it was reasonable and necessary, especially for victims of rape and incest.

Lawmakers cited concerns about women’s well-being in voting to override the veto and cleared the two-thirds majority requirement.

The new requirement, which takes effect right away, was criticized by abortion rights advocates.

Wyoming is the first state to explicitly outlaw pill abortions, though that and other abortion bans over the past three years are on hold pending a case before the Wyoming Supreme Court.

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Under Wyoming’s new law, pregnant women planning pill abortions will have to drive potentially long distances to get an ultrasound and have it documented. They would have the opportunity but not be required to view the image of the fetus at least 48 hours before a pill abortion.

Existing state law already requires abortion providers to offer an ultrasound to women getting abortions.

Pregnant woman who do not get an ultrasound will not be penalized under the new law, however. Instead it is medical providers who face up to $9,000 in fines and six months in jail for not arranging it.

But there are few if any active abortion providers left. In February, the state’s only full-service abortion clinic stopped providing any abortion care, surgical or medicinal, after Gordon signed a bill requiring such facilities to be licensed as surgical centers.

Property tax relief bill signed

Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon on March 4 signed a bill providing 25% property tax relief for homeowners.

The legislation provides a 25% property tax exemption for the first $1 million of a single-family home’s value with no sunset date.

“This act, coupled with the bills I signed last year, responds to the call for property tax relief,” Gordon said “Now the practical impacts of this legislation will need to be navigated by our cities, counties, special districts and citizens.”

The exemption takes effect immediately, with an owner-occupied requirement beginning in the second year.

Republican Rep. Jayme Lien called it a win for Wyoming residents and added that she looks forward to working on property tax reform in the interim.

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Casper City Manager after Napier on said the final version of the bill is better than the initial language in the bill but that Casper — the second largest city in the state — will still have to review its budget.

Earlier versions of the bill proposed a 50% property tax exemption for the first $1 million of a single-family home’s value.

Casper estimated its loss from the new law and previously enacted caps to be $1.865 million but that noted that the total impact is unknown.

NEW MEXICO

Nuclear waste staff won’t face cuts

ALBUQUERQUE — Federal officials backtracked on plans to cancel a lease for office space in New Mexico where dozens of U.S. Department of Energy employees who oversee the nation’s only underground nuclear waste repository are based.

The move came March 7 after U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez and other members of the state’s congressional delegation raised concerns, noting the importance of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant to the nation’s multibillion-dollar effort to clean up tons of waste from decades of bomb-making and nuclear research.

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The office building in question also houses contract workers involved in operations at the underground facility outside of Carlsbad.

The Energy Department confirmed in a statement to The Associated Press that the General Services Administration had revoked its prior notice to exercise termination rights for multiple department facility leases, including the office building in Carlsbad. The department said the move ensures “that these mission-critical operations continue without disruption.”

Vasquez said the initial notice to terminate the lease as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink government spending was reckless and shortsighted.

Carved out of an ancient salt formation about half a mile deep, the subterranean landfill received its first shipment of radioactive waste in 1999.

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