The dispute over a $183 million loan to replace old lead pipes at homes in the Birmingham area has reawakened hard feelings and generated fresh political outrage from critics of the new water board.

Central Alabama Water, formerly the Birmingham Water Works, needs the city’s support to receive a package of low-interest and forgivable loans to pay for new pipes. They recently turned to Mayor Randall Woodfin, but Woodfin said he won’t cooperate until the utility meets a set of demands.

Critics of the utility are siding with the mayor.

“Birmingham has been targeted as the irresponsible, the nasty, the unprofessional — whatever is it about them owning that system, but now they’re going back to Birmingham saying ‘hey help us out, co-sign for us a grant or a loan,” Gary Richardson, host of th

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