ESCONDIDO -- Every time the Santa Ana winds pick up, they pollute the city's local water supply with leftover ash and light debris from the Paradise fire, city officials told a City Council subcommittee Tuesday.

The continual dumping of pollutants means the city must buy more of the expensive, imported water. The added costs, unknown for now, will likely end up on the water bills of the city's 24,000 water users, according to Glen Peterson, the city's interim utilities manager.

The Oct. 26 fire damaged 12 miles of the 14-mile water canal that transports water from Lake Henshaw to Lake Wohlford, although city crews had cleaned up 80 percent of the debris and garbage before Thanksgiving, Peterson said in a report to council members Marie Waldron and Ed Gallo.

On Thanksgiving Day, strong Santa Ana winds showered the city with ash and soot, filling the canal back up, he added.

"Now we are at only 30 percent of the debris removed," Peterson told . "All of the winds blow a lot of that debris right back into the canal. And every time we have high winds, we are going to have more debris."

City officials said they were not sure how much the damage and never-ending debris will cost the city or water users. Escondido already uses mostly imported water anyway, but what little local water is available keeps costs down, Peterson said. The city is required by law to charge what it costs for water services, meaning increased costs must be passed on to water customers when the city reviews its water rates next year.

The council subcommittee didn't take any action on Peterson's report, but acknowledged that aside from the possible bigger water bills, Escondido got off easy. The 138,000-population city did not lose any lives or homes in the fire that killed two people in Valley Center and scorched 56,700 acres and destroyed 176 houses and 192 outbuildings.

Along with the debris clean-up, Gallo and Waldron also reviewed the process of fluoridating the city's water supply.

Although the council approved the very controversial decision in 2001, city officials have only recently finished installing the $300,000 in new fluoridation equipment at Escondido's water treatment plant. Next, they must ask the local office of Department of Health Services to run a mandatory series of tests before fluoridation can begin, Peterson said.

He also presented the council members with a copy of a letter that will be sent out to all water users before fluoridation begins early next year. The letter will tell users how and when their water will have fluoride.

Gallo and Waldron opposed fluoridation when the decision was cast in 2001, and they were still not happy about it Tuesday. They didn't like the fact that the brochure had no health warnings about the risk of fluoride, especially to young children.

"Can we put something on here that tells new parents to check with their doctors?" Waldron said. "I would hate to have a baby under 6 months old drinking the water and getting sick."

The bulk of the Escondido Water District's customers are houses in the central and northeastern Escondido, Peterson said. Some western city residents are served by the Rincon Water District and will not receive fluoride until 2006. But there are small sections that are served by the opposite water district, leaving some small neighborhoods in Rincon that will receive fluoride, and other users in the Escondido district who will not, he added.

Contact staff writer Erin Massey at (760) 740-5416 or emassey@nctimes.com.