A bill to change the Birmingham Water Works Board to a regional board and strip Birmingham of its majority on the board moved a step closer to passing Tuesday.

An Alabama House committee approved SB330 by Sen. Dan Roberts, R-Mountain Brook, despite opposition voiced at a public hearing that drew an overflow crowd.

Roberts and Sen. Jabo Waggoner, R-Vestavia Hills, a co-sponsor, spoke in support of the bill.

The bill is the latest chapter in what has been a struggle for control of the board that has surfaced in the Legislature on and off for years.

If approved, the legislation would be the most dramatic overhaul of the state’s largest water utility, since it was expanded a decade ago to create new seats for members from Blount and Shelby Counties.

The BWWB serves customers in five counties – Jefferson, Shelby, Blount, St. Clair, and Walker.

The nine-member board currently has six seats from Birmingham, one from the Jefferson County Mayors Association and one each from Blount and Shelby Counties.

The bill would change that to seven members, with two appointments for Birmingham:

• One appointed by the Blount County Commission
• One appointed by the Shelby County Commission
• One appointed by the Birmingham City Council
• One appointed by the Birmingham mayor
• One appointed by the president of the Jefferson County Commission
• One appointed by the lieutenant governor
• One Jefferson County resident appointed by the governor

The bill would also add some qualifications for appointees, requiring that they have backgrounds in business, finance and, for one of the slots, engineering.

Roberts said the goal is to put together a professional team that will put the interests of BWWB customers first.

Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, acknowledged that there are problems with the BWWB but said those are in the process of being fixed by the current board.

Givan and other Democratic lawmakers from Birmingham said the bill was a local issue that should have been hashed out by the Jefferson County delegation.

Roberts said the system is broken. He said 50% of the water that flows through the system is lost and not billed for. He said maintenance and replacement of the system’s infrastructure should be on a 100-year cycle but is on a 300-year cycle.

Sen. Jabo Waggoner, R-Vestavia Hills spoke in favor of the bill. Waggoner said changes to the BWWB that came in a bill he sponsored a decade ago worked for a while, but said the same problems and customer complaints have returned.

BWWB Chairwoman Terishia Huffman and BWWB general manager Mac Underwood spoke in opposition to the bill.

Underwood noted that 91% of BWWB’s customers are in Jefferson County. He said the system wins high marks for water quality and that it is well managed and is investing money back into the system for improvements.

Rep. Jim Hill, R-Moody, said he was not opposed to the intent of the bill but opposed the fact that St. Clair County would have have an appointee on the board. Hill urged the committee to add an eighth board member representing St. Clair.

The committee did not take a roll call vote on the bill, but approved it on a voice vote called for by the Chairman, Rep. Jim Carns, R-Vestavia Hills.

The committee approval puts the bill in position for final passage by the House of Representatives as early as this week.

The Senate passed the bill last week after negotiations and changes.

This story will be updated.