Coldwater Board of Public Utilities found itself in the bullseye of comments and complaints Monday night in a short city council session.

Unsuccessful 2019 mayoral and 2018 city council candidate Dan Corwin reacted to a $3 million state grant to replace lead water connections that starts next month.

Corwin told the council, "I would request that the public be informed in any residential or business that has water mains with lead pipes in them. (That) they be given a written notification so they can make a personal decision on whether or not they want their children and their families to be using the water that comes through the lead pipes."

Brian Musselman, the CBPU water, water resource recovery facility, and telecom superintendent, said the city couldn't be sure who has lead connections. When street reconstruction began this summer, "We had an estimate at the start. It was 12,140," he said.

The city works on water and sewer connections when streets are opened for repaving to save on future digging.

"We just did Perkins Street," Musselman said. "We had five services there that were listed as lead. They were copper."

The only way to tell if a water line has a lead connection to the main is to open up the street and look at it. The grant gives the city until 2025 to complete its work under the grant.

Annual water system tests came back this summer with no service indicating above-limit lead content. Since 2014, test results for Coldwater for lead and copper have been well below the level for action.

"We offer everyone wanting to have their water tested to join the testing," Musselman said. "We will gladly take it during the summer testing period. It takes like two weeks. We need 30 people to participate."

Lead became an issue after Flint and Benton Harbor upped the ph levels in their water systems and leached lead into the drinking water. That is not the case in Coldwater. CBPU began adding inhibitors in 1999 to prevent lead and metal leaching.

The city will check out the water system at Fairview Estates at 260 East Garfield. A couple complained their water looked dirty when they used the washer or in the tap.

"That's basically a separate system," Musselman said. "Once it leaves our meter, that's their own piping in the ground. We'll check it out for them."

He sent a crew to look over the problem Tuesday afternoon. CBPU director Paul Jakubczak talked to them after the meeting.

Corwin complained about a sewage smell at his Fourth Ward home about a quarter mile from the wastewater treatment facility.

Musselman said, "We've offered to take him on a tour of the wastewater plant the last time he complained about the smell, the odors."

The only open part of the system, a large concrete block holding structure off Jay Street, allows the city to control the feed into the plant during high flow periods.

Musselman said there is a system that sprays Febreze over and into the tank to control the odor.