Contaminated sewage pit | “The City is holding my payments hostage”

Hired to remediate contaminated site, contractor fears spill

A specialized contractor hired by Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures to rehabilitate a rainwater purification basin refuses to do work after discovering contaminants which, according to him, risk spreading into a neighboring lake if he disrupts the ecosystem with its machinery.

The municipality, which did not obtain authorization from the Ministry of the Environment to carry out the work, replies that the mandate respects the rules of the art and threatens the contractor with fines of $2,500 per day of delay on the planned schedule.

“I am caught in an ethical conflict,” says Serge Lavergne, an environmental engineer and owner of Services hydriques Qwatro, which obtained the contract to repair the site.

In the summer of 2023, his company won a call for tenders launched by the municipality to rehabilitate two rainwater catchment basins, poorly maintained since their construction in the 1990s. Qwatro’s proposal, totaling 1.07 million, arrived 15% below the price of its closest competitor.

As part of the call for tenders, Mr. Lavergne specifically asked whether there was reason to believe that the site could contain contaminated land. “The City is not aware of any facts or circumstances leading to the belief that the spoil at the bottom of the marsh or the organic matter found in the marsh could be contaminated,” was the official response.

However, after the start of the work, his team discovered contaminants – oils and greases – in sediments accumulated in a marsh which is used to filter the water before it flows into Lake Saint-Augustin. According to Mr. Lavergne, the mixing of sediments by machinery to remove this contaminated land risks “major disruption of the ecosystem” and cause leaks of polluted water into Lake Saint-Augustin.

According to him, a certificate of authorization from the Ministry of the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change is necessary to carry out such work.

An “armoured quote”, replies the mayor

“It’s certain that it will be resolved in court,” reacts the mayor of Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures, Sylvain Juneau. The engineering firm which designed the call for tenders and which supervises the operations, Eureka Environnement, assures the municipality that no permit is necessary since it is simple maintenance work.

Even though the most important part of the work has already been completed by Qwatro on the problem site, the municipality refuses to pay any amount, maintaining that the discovery of contaminants is entirely the responsibility of the contractor. “Our estimate is ironclad,” says the mayor.

“We’re talking about contaminants, but it’s not uranium or terrible things,” adds the mayor. “It’s mainly de-icing salt and heavy metals from vehicles,” he explains.

According to him, Qwatro got itself into trouble by bidding at too low a price without taking into account the complexity of the work.

The Ministry of the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change, made aware of the dispute, says it is analyzing the situation with the authorities involved. “In the event of a breach of Quebec environmental legislation or regulations, the Ministry will take appropriate recourse, and has several means to do so, in accordance with the directive on the handling of breaches,” indicates spokesperson Frédéric Fournier. .

Mr. Lavergne “implores” the City to review its position. “If I take the matter to court, it will be resolved in five or six years,” he estimates. If this is not resolved before then, I will go bankrupt in five or six months,” he says.