Water plant construction slowed by contaminated soil

Arsenic in the soil has added to the cost and may extend construction by three months, the builder has told the city.

01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, August 11, 2005

By JOHN CASTELLUCCI Journal Staff Writer

PAWTUCKET -- Ten months after the project finally got started, construction of the city's new water treatment plant is nearing the halfway point.

Large concrete forms are rising from the half-acre site, off Route 95 near the Massachusetts state line, where the plant is being constructed. A big chunk of earth has been removed from the hillside near Pawtucket Water Supply Board headquarters, where a 5-million-gallon water storage tank will be assembled, piece by piece.

The $45.6-million project, paid for with bonds issued by the Rhode Island Clean Water Finance Agency, has been going smoothly, according to Pamela M. Marchand, chief engineer of the Water Supply Board, and Paul H. DeLong, manager of the project for Earth Tech.

But there have been a couple of hitches.

In an agreement reached before construction began, the Water Supply Board gave Earth Tech an extra 22 days to finish the treatment plant. The board also agreed to pay Earth Tech an additional $407,959 for dealing with difficult site conditions, including arsenic-contaminated soil.

Although no change order has been submitted, Earth Tech recently told Marchand that the amount of arsenic-contaminated soil that must be removed from the site is in excess of the 20,000 cubic yards specified in the agreement.

That raises the possibility that the company will put in a claim for more money.

In addition, Earth Tech said that, due to the delays arising from the difficult site conditions, the plant may not be finished on time.

Thomas E. Hodge, the City Council member who acts as the council's liaison to the Water Supply Board, said that, though no formal request has been received yet, Earth Tech may seek another 90 days to finish the job.

That would move the completion date from March to May or June.

Marchand told City Council members last month she is optimistic that both of the issues raised by Earth Tech can be settled without a lengthy dispute. "Hopefully we can get these things resolved," she said, "because we're not that far apart."

The 90-day delay is a problem because it could put the Water Supply Board in violation of tough new, federal safe drinking-water standards that took effect last year and three years ago.

The new plant is being built to meet those standards. Marchand told the City Council that the contract with Earth Tech allows the Water Supply Board to impose a $5,000-per-day penalty on the company if the plant is finished late.

The arsenic-contaminated soil is a bone of contention because it has to be carted to the Central Landfill in Johnston, where disposing of it costs money.

"All we're doing is taking the soils and transporting the soils and taking them to the landfill," Paul DeLong, the Earth Tech project manager, said last week in an interview.

"Pamela [Marchand] wants to cap that number and quantity and our position is, it is what it is."

Things may not be as bad as they seem.

Arsenic levels in some of the soil excavated from the hillside where the 5-million-gallon water storage tank will be built have turned out to be below the threshold for contamination, DeLong said.

The soil, which Earth Tech initially piled alongside Route 95, creating a hill visible from the southbound lanes of the highway, is being used as bedding for the 36-inch-diameter water transmission line that Earth Tech is building to connect the new treatment plant with Happy Hollow Pond, the last link in the chain of reservoirs that the Water Supply Board owns in Cumberland.

"Most of it has gone down the road to be used for the pipeline," Marchand said of the soil yesterday. "So [the cost of disposal] might be a nonissue."