A local law firm has plans to take the city to court for what it alleges is negligence in allowing the Atlantic Avenue Sewage Treatment Plant to flood.
Lawyers with Watkins Law Professional Corporations announced to local media Monday that they plan to bring a class action lawsuit against the city. The allegations stem from the massive flooding last week that caused untold damage across the city.
Some areas of the city saw about 108 millimetres of rain, which led to the sewage treatment plant being knocked out.
The plant typically has up to 60 mega litres per day running through it but by 2 a.m. Monday the water running through it had reached capacity and caused the main sewage pumps to fail, flooding the plant.
City officials have stated that the flooding at the sewage treatment plant was unprecedented and unexpected.
“We never anticipated in our emergency preparedness for the plant to flood to the state at which we saw it this morning,” city infrastructure and operations manager Darrell Matson told media after finding out about the situation at the plant.
“We never thought that from a design perspective we would ever have a plant that was flooded to the degree of which we see it flooded today.”
Lawyer Alexander Zaitzeff, who is leading another class action lawsuit against the RCMP for the Thunder Bay area, said the city knew for years the sewage treatment plant was not up to par and had a “bad design.”
Zaitzeff said in this day and age a sewage plant shouldn’t be flooding.
“This is history that has repeated itself,” Zaitzeff said. “The city knew full well what they needed to do. They didn’t do it. They should have done it. It’s a terrible tragedy. This city is going to have to make everybody whole. This is negligence and they are going to make these people whole.”
Currently only one person is involved in the lawsuit, but Zaitzeff said he expects about a thousand people could join in by the time they are ready to certify, which usually takes between two to five years.
The representative plaintiff for the lawsuit has had to make three claims because of flooding over the past 10 years and now is unable to get insurance coverage for sewer backup, he said.
Anyone who was impacted by the flooding could join, and the lawyers involved say they recommended that residents hold on to their receipts and get at least two assessments on their property before trying to join the lawsuit.
“It’s easy for engineers to design safeguards and backup systems,” he said.
“A sewage treatment plant should never ever be flooded out. I’ve had cases like this over the past 20 years. I’ve been counsel to the Ontario Clean Water Corporation, the Ministry of the Environment and I’ve represented them on exactly these kinds of issues.
“This is plain and simple bad design and worst of all the city has ignored it and they want everyone to wait.”
He said city should be offering to clean their homes and pay their fees.
The city has been trying to implement a relief fund since the flooding happened and has lobbied to both the federal and province to provide assistance in cleaning homes and providing assistance for those impacted by the flood and aren’t insured.
City manager Tim Commisso told hundreds over the weekend that when Ontario declares Thunder Bay a disaster area they can apply for that funding, which would be for private property on a two-for-one basis.
Although there’s no dollar figure attached to the lawsuit yet, Zaitzeff said that if the city does receive relief funding that will be taken into account in the lawsuit.
“The evidence is plain and simple,” he said. “A sewage treatment plant should never ever be flooded. Absolutely you can prove it was a bad design it flooded. The event speaks for itself. Will there be engineering studies? Of course there will be.”
Thunder Bay Television contacted the City of Thunder Bay for a response Monday afternoon, however officials said they could not make a comment because they still hadn’t received anything official regarding a class action lawsuit.
