Try full disclosure

Since September 2007 concerned Oak Park residents have repeatedly asked Triunfo Sanitation District to provide us with the safety and long-term toxicological reports that California law requires from manufacturers of all products added to the public water supply for the substance used to fluoridate our water supply: hydrofluorosilicic acid, a toxic waste product of the phosphate fertilizer industry sold to the Metropolitan Water District by Mosaic, a division of Cargill.

Ignored by TSD, we then asked the Oak Park Municipal Advisory Council in November 2007 to help us in obtaining these legally required reports from TSD and still TSD was unresponsive. In January 2008 the Oak Park MAC requested again that TSD comply with our request, but still TSD remained unresponsive.

Residents of Topanga and Malibu recently learned from Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky that when he tried to obtain these same safety and longterm toxicological reports for them from National Sanitation Foundation International, the private company paid to certify manufacturers who comply with the law, he learned, to his surprise, that the NSF refuses to provide the reports, insisting that the reports are "private property" and that the agency isn't subject to the California Public Records Act or the federal Freedom of Information Act.

If the safety reports exist, the public is entitled to see them. If they don't exist, the substance shouldn't be added to our water, plain and simple.

Ron Stark and the rest of TSD board should ensure the law is followed and that the water they sell is safe, not contaminated unlawfully with a substance so toxic it's illegal to dump in a stream. Nicole Johnson Oak Park