South Frontenac sued contractor

Mar 20, 2019

It is a case where the fact that something was secret ended up being more interesting than the secret itself.

Earlier this year a report from the township of South Frontenac’s closed meeting investigator urged South Frontenac to reveal details about a matter regarding the Sydenham Water plant.

After consulting with the township lawyer, the township is now revealing that it was “a party to litigation on the water plant” and has released a 400 word statement about the case,

The statement outlines how, in 2010, the township “undertook upgrades to the Sydenham Water plan to address deficiencies in the plant’s original design that were necessary to address environmental regulations.”

The upgrades including the introduction of UV equipment, a Granular Activated Carbon Filter, and a change to chloramination from chorination as the primary disinfection process.

The Chloramination process is where a new problem surfaced. It requires a serpentine piping system which acts as a wall mounted storage system as part of the chloramination process. A few months after the upgrades were finished, water plant operators noticed what appeared to be several pin-holes leaks in the serpentine piping.

The problem did not result in a safety concern regarding water quality or safety, but it had to be addressed. A temporary fix, involving the use of rubber gaskets, was put in place, and are still in place today. A permanent solution will not be attempted until the system is ready for another upgrade in the coming years.

There were warranty issues that resulted from the leaks and those issues could not be resolved, and the township launched legal action, which is why the matter came to council in an in camera session. In 2018, the entire matter was resolved without going to trial in 2018, and the township received a lump sum payment, for an undisclosed amount, which has been applied to the Sydenham Water Plant reserve fund.

With the release of this report the township considers that the matter is closed.