The City of Abbotsford is suing three more companies in relation to a flood at its Norrish Creek water treatment plant that did $1.7 million of damage after a valve failed.
Last spring, the city filed suit, alleging that the designers of the plant – Dayton & Knight – failed to “incorporate redundancies and fail-safe measures” that would have reduced the likelihood of a damaging flood. The suit was filed against Opus International and Opus DaytonKnight Consultants – two companies created after mergers involving Dayton & Knight.
The Opus companies have responded and blamed mistakes by the City of Abbotsford for the valve failure and flood damage.
In documents filed in November, the city has broadened the lawsuit, alleging three more companies that did work on the plant failed to protect it from a flood. The new companies being sued are: Associated Engineering, which in 2008 designed an upgrade to the plant’s water supply intake; CH2M Canada Limited, which was contracted in 2010 to design another upgrade to allow the plant to better operate during turbidity events; and GE Water Process and Technologies, which provided materials used by CH2M.
None of the allegations has been proven in court.
Dayton &Knight was paid nearly $800,000 to design the plant, according to a 2010 report. Following the 2015 event, a second emergency valve was added at a cost of $90,000 to protect against a future flood.