A North Hamilton County water treatment plant is shut down today as its operator, Darrell Burchard, replaces a cracked pipe in the pump room. Mr. Burchard had suspected another cause for the leak: Fluoride, a caustic agent put into the water of North West Utility district in north of Chattanooga, Tenn. By David Tulis But no, this time it wasn’t that perilous additive, but a defect in the pipe. Still, Mr. Burchard says, the extruded pipe shows fluoride damage. Harm to pipes and fixtures is a routine problem for the district’s two plants — and people who run the plants … Continue reading Fluoride pits concrete, corrodes pipes at Sale Creek plant; operator sick