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Bay City outlines progress, costs and timeline for lead service line replacements
Summary
Water distribution manager Marty Jurish told the City Commission the city has replaced thousands of service lines since 2019, has used DWRF, grant and ARPA funds and expects to need tens of millions more to finish. He outlined tools, priorities and the effect of an EPA requirement that will raise annual replacement targets.
Marty Jurish, Bay City’s water distribution metering manager, told the City Commission on April 21 that the city has replaced roughly 3,000 water services since 2019 and remains on pace to continue replacements but will need more funding to finish the work.
Jurish said the city used a mix of a $5,000,000 DWRF loan and a $3,000,000 grant in 2019, and the previous commission allocated $10,000,000 in ARPA funding for line replacement. He estimated the total cost to finish replacements citywide between $20 million and $30 million and said the $30 million figure would be on the high end.
Why it matters: lead service lines are a public-health issue because they can increase lead concentrations in household water. Jurish described Bay City’s inventory, replacement priorities and tools intended to speed work while reducing surface damage and restoration costs.
Jurish said the city built its inventory from original service logs, card files and field verification and has a GIS layer that shows service status: completed (blue), waiting (green) and needing homeowner authorization (red). He said the city hydrovacs unknown services, uses a pipe-puller to extract long runs of lead without full trenching and has used those tools to accelerate replacements and limit restoration costs.
"We hydrovaced them up. We verified exactly what they were at the curb stop," Jurish said, describing the inventory work. He added: "We completed close to 3,000 services according to this. Actually, it's more than that now." Jurish also said the pipe puller cost about $63,000 and that the city now has two.
Jurish described selection criteria: emergencies and low-pressure calls get priority; testing that returns high lead readings (he uses "10 parts per billion" as an internal threshold) moves a site to the top of the list; replacements are coordinated with road projects; and daycare/school facilities were prioritized. He said homeowner authorization remains an obstacle, particularly for out-of-town landlords, and said staff are exploring ordinance changes to allow a tenant-signed authorization in some cases.
He said the city used ARPA funds to purchase a hydrovac and that reduced excavation time and restoration needs. He also said local crews and a mix of contractors perform replacements; some restoration work is done in-house and sometimes outside contractors are used.
On annual workloads and an EPA change: Jurish said EPA requirements will change in 2027, increasing sampling requirements from 5% of services to 10% and that the city would have to increase annual replacement rates accordingly. "If I can do 3, 4, 500 a year, which we're capable of doing, I think my staff could handle that no problem," he said. Jurish estimated that after current funds are spent the city would be down to roughly 2,000 households left to replace, and that to meet EPA expectations the city would need to maintain a multi-hundred-per-year pace.
Commissioners asked about timeline, equity and staffing. Commissioner Bernie Obershaw pressed on when older blocks — including some built in the early 1900s — would be completed. Jurish said he does not prioritize by assessed home value or wealth; instead he targets areas with the most consolidated need or coordinates with planned street construction projects. "I pick an area that has a consolidated amount of lead service lines," Jurish said.
Commissioners also asked about workforce turnover and whether the commission could help retain staff; Jurish said retirements and mismatches for the job had reduced crew experience but added that the department is training new hires. Commissioner Timmy asked if the commission could do anything proactive; Jurish answered that more money always helps but the recent turnover was mainly personnel choices and retirements.
Ending: Jurish urged residents to check the city’s online dashboard showing service status and to contact the utility with questions. He said staff will keep pursuing grants and partnerships to cover remaining costs and that the city intends to continue replacements until the inventory is done.
(Reporting note: figures and program names come from Jurish's presentation and follow-up Q&A at the April 21 Bay City City Commission meeting.)
