Opinion ID: 2262083
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: port angeles's fluoridation plan

Text: ¶ 13 The city and the Foundation argue that the city council's decision to fluoridate the water was made pursuant to both the city's existing water management plan and detailed state administrative regulations governing water, and thus was as administrative as Seattle's decision to rename streets. Both courts below agreed. ¶ 14 OWOC and POW respond by arguing that the initiatives are essentially legislative because the decision to fluoridate was new. [6] We need not decide whether that in itself is sufficient to show that a plan was administrative or legislative because the record does not support the contention that the fluoridation plan was new at the time the initiatives were filed. The initiatives were filed three and one-half years after the city council approved fluoridating and one and one-half years after the city council entered into a contract to build and install the system. ¶ 15 OWOC and POW also cite to a California case that found the decision to fluoridate was intrinsically legislative. Hughes v. City of Lincoln, 232 Cal.App.2d 741, 747, 43 Cal.Rptr. 306 (1965) (Intrinsically therefore, as well as in its police power origin, the decision to fluoridate is legislative rather than administrative.). But they make no attempt to show that the 1965 California Court of Appeals made that decision against a substantially similar statutory and regulatory scheme that exists in Washington today. As described above, water quality in the United States, and in Washington State specifically, is highly regulated. The Department of Health regulations permit water systems to administratively adopt water fluoridation programs. WAC 246-290-460 (implicitly acknowledging the power of water purveyors to fluoridate and regulating implementation). There is a finding in a related case that Port Angeles's decision to fluoridate the water was made pursuant to the Department of Health's program. Clallam County Citizens, 137 Wash.App. at 220, 151 P.3d 1079. POW and OWOC have not shown that the California system was similar to our own such that Hughes is helpful. ¶ 16 OWOC and POW also contend that the court should only consider the fundamental and overriding purpose of the initiatives in determining whether they are administrative or legislative, relying on Coppernoll, 155 Wash.2d at 302, 119 P.3d 318. Their reliance on Coppernoll is not well taken. As we explained in Futurewise, [i]f an initiative otherwise meets procedural requirements, is legislative in nature, and its `fundamental and overriding purpose' is within the State's broad power to enact, it is not subject to preelection review. Futurewise v. Reed, 161 Wash.2d 407, 411, 166 P.3d 708 (2007) (emphasis added) (quoting Coppernoll, 155 Wash.2d at 302-03, 119 P.3d 318). Coppernoll concerned a largely substantive preelection challenge to a statewide initiative that would have, among other things, restricted noneconomic damages in medical malpractice action to $350,000 per claimant. Coppernoll, 155 Wash.2d at 293-95, 119 P.3d 318. Coppernoll did not hold (or even consider, given the questions that were presented) that court review of whether a local initiative was administrative or legislative was limited to the fundamental and overriding purpose of an initiative. Instead, it assumed the subject matter was legislative in nature and the court used the term fundamental and overriding purpose as a razor to cut away untimely substantive constitutional challenges to the statewide initiative's validity. Id. at 303, 119 P.3d 318. ¶ 17 We agree with the city and the Foundation that these initiatives are administrative in nature. They explicitly seek to administer the details of the city's existing water system. The legislature gave the Department of Health the authority and responsibility to set maximum contaminant levels in drinking water based on the best available scientific information, which it has done. RCW 70.142.010; chs. 246-290 through-296 WAC. Only local health departments of counties with at least 125,000 in population may set stricter standards, again, based on the best available scientific information. RCW 70.142.040. The Medical Independence Act explicitly seeks to interfere with this existing system by limiting the amount of fluoride in the public water system. Similarly, the Water Additives Safety Act states, among other things, that it is prohibited to add to a public water supply any substance which is contaminated with filth, with contaminated with filth defined as a term applicable to contaminants taken singly or as a group which are present in a product intended to be added to drinking water and which are present in quantities which would, when dispensed at the manufacturer's Maximum Use Level, allow the final consumer-ready product to exceed for one or more contaminants the Maximum Contaminant Level Goals ('MCLGs') as published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. ACP at 13. This directly impacts existing water regulations promulgated by state and federal agencies. The water additives initiative also seeks to set limits on the amount of fluoride that can be present in the water and imports testing and documentation standards from health regulations governing pharmaceuticals into the public water regime. Id. (citing WAC 246-895-070(9)). These are not details of `a new policy or plan,' indicative of a legislative act; these are modifications of `a plan already adopted by the legislative body itself, or some power superior to it,' indicative of an administrative act. Heider, 100 Wash.2d at 876, 675 P.2d 597 (internal quotation marks omitted) (quoting Citizens for Fin. Responsible Gov't, 99 Wash.2d at 347, 662 P.2d 845). [7]