EWhittome 03032026.pdf

20 March 2026

Erika Whittome
Via email

Email: [FYI request #33435 email]

Dear Erika

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION UNDER THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL INFORMATION AND MEETINGS
ACT 1987 (LGOIMA) – FLUORIDATION

Your request

On 6 January 2026, we received your request for information. In particular, your request was as follows:

Dear Watercare Services Limited,
I note that Hastings District Council has a ﬂuoride free and chlorine removed water reﬁl  station in
the city of Hastings.
Would you please share the location of Auckland water reﬁl  stations that are ﬂuoride free and
chlorine removed drinking water?
Yours faithfully,
Erika Whittome

On 22 January 2026, we provided our response as below.
The link below is a map of the Watercare supplied tanker fil ing stations:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=18MUcjwU2suXPHnoHBcB3t55rGCOMHahB&l
=-36.620321899…
Registered tanker operators use these stations to get access to Watercare bulk water supplies for
their customers. Access to these tanker fil ing stations is control ed and not available for individual
customer use.
All fil ing stations would have residual chlorine added from their respective Water Treatment Plant
supplying that area.
The only tanker fil ing stations that do not have fluoride supplied are in our rural Water Treatment
Plant areas. This includes the tanker fil ing stations in Wel sford (105 Centennial Park Road,
Wellsford), Warkworth (6 Brown Road, Warkworth) and Helensvil e (37 Mill Road, Helensville). Al
others have fluoride added.
On 22 January 2026, we received another email seeking clariﬁcation of our response set out above. In
particular, your email was as follows:
Dear Pinaz Pithadia,
So are you saying that the information on water refil  stations that the public can use that are
fluoride and chlorine fee does not exist?
Yours sincerely,
Erika Whittome

On 18 February 2026, we received another email seeking clariﬁcation of our response dated 22 January
2026. In particular, your email was as follows:
Dear Pinaz Pithadia,
Thank you for the response in which you said:
"The link below is a map of the Watercare supplied tanker fil ing stations:
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=18MUcjwU2suXP
HnoHBcB3t55rGCOMHahB&l =-
36.62032189999999*2C174.6777079&z=9__;JQ!!JcuPmubLuqHOewrctw!GJtyaHcrJW2lNxXq3JkTPH
i6fJeW2DJAtYnDSJr7AwkyrzevzkOv7EB7f5PAHeg0sebhWaR0KPH4lCt-UXfzA5-
FOWSXkqLOkZKmetxWbIiF$
Registered tanker operators use these stations to get access to Watercare bulk water supplies for
their
customers. Access to these tanker fil ing stations is control ed and not available for individual
customer use."
So certain customers get access to no chlorine, no fluoride water, but not individual customers. So
the information on refil  stations does not exist, right? Please confirm this is the information you are
supplying under the Act.
Yours sincerely,
Erika Whittome
On 23 February 2026, we provided our response as below.
As stated in our letter of 22 January 2026, all Watercare ﬁl ing stations have residual chlorine added
from the respective Water Treatment Plant supplying that area.
The tanker ﬁl ing stations in Wel sford (105 Centennial Park Road, Wel sford), Warkworth (6 Brown
Road, Warkworth), and Helensvil e (37 Mil  Road, Helensvil e) do not have ﬂuoride added.
This means that Watercare does not have any water reﬁl ing stations available to the public that
are both ﬂuoride free and chemical free.
In summary:
•  The water at al  of Watercare’s tanker ﬁl ing stations has residual chlorine
•  The water at three of Watercare’s water tanker ﬁl ing stations has no ﬂuoride (see list above)
•  There are no tanker ﬁl ing stations that are both ﬂuoride free and chlorine free.
Our tanker ﬁling stations are for wholesale customers, who ﬁl  up large tankers with water, for
distribution to their retail customers. None of these tankers access chlorine free water as al  water
we sel  has residual chlorine from the treatment process.
It seems to us that you are asking whether an individual can access ﬂuoride free water via a tanker
ﬁl ing station. The only way that an individual customer like yourself would be able to access such
ﬂuoride free water would be to buy water oﬀ a wholesale tanker operator who had ﬁl ed up their
tanker at one of the three ﬂuoride free tanker stations mentioned above.
On 3 March 2026, we received another email seeking further clariﬁcation of our response dated 23
February 2026. In particular, your email was as follows:
Dear Pinaz Pithadia,
Your letter says "Watercare does not have any water reﬁl ing stations available to the public that
are both ﬂuoride free and chemical free. "
So the information does not exist.
Yours sincerely,

Erika Whittome
Our response
This letter sets out our response to your email dated 3 March 2026.
We formally confirm that the information requested in your original request dated 6 January 2026 does not
exist. In particular, there are no Auckland water refill stations that are both fluoride free and chlorine free.
We therefore refuse your request under section 17(e) of the LGOIMA.
Next steps
If you are unhappy with our response, we recommend that you:
•  obtain your own legal advice, or
•  contact the Ministry of Health using a form available on their website: Official Information Act requests
| Ministry of Health NZ, or
•  seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman for all of our responses. Information about how to
make a complaint is available at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 602.
Yours sincerely

Tuan Hawke
Head of Operations Performance