Builder faces lawsuit after Fresno workers injured by ozone leak at water treatment plant
The City of Fresno is suing a building contractor and an engineering firm for allegedly doing faulty work on the Southeast Surface Water Treatment Facility that caused injuries to two city employees.
In the lawsuit, filed on Nov. 18 in Fresno County Superior Court, the city accuses Carollo Engineering of Walnut Creek and W.M. Lyles Co. of Fresno of negligence and breach of contract. The city is seeking damages to be determined at trial.
Neither company or city officials could be reached for comment Friday.
Carollo Engineering of Walnut Creek was hired in 2014 for engineering services and to design plans and construction documents for the future surface water treatment plant in southeast Fresno.
The company was paid $9.1 million for its work that also included overseeing the engineering aspects of the project, specifying the equipment used, and ensuring that the proper materials were installed.
In 2015, the Fresno-based W.M. Lyles Co. was awarded $158 million to build the surface water treatment plant that converts water from the Kings River into drinking water for city residents. The plant at 6395 E Floradora Ave., west of Temperance Avenue, was completed in 2018.
As part of the water treatment process, ozone is generated on site and injected into the water to kill harmful bacteria.
But problems would arise from ozone leaks, according to the lawsuit.
City employee Caesar Sierras entered the basin area of the plant on June 26, 2019, and immediately experienced a pungent odor in the air.
“Mr. Sierras used his handheld ambient ozone analyzer and discovered the ozone level was nearly eight times above the permissible exposure limits,” according to the lawsuit. “As a result of being exposed to these hazardous levels of ozone, Mr. Sierras suffered pulmonary issues and sought medical treatment of those injuries.”
After Sierras’ exposure, city workers discovered that the wrong ozone monitors were installed at the water basin areas. They also found that there was a large ozone leak coming from a pipe coupling. The piece of pipe was replaced and the system was placed back online, the lawsuit states.
About a year later, on February 21, 2020, city employee Randy Clifton entered the water basin area of the plant to inspect the ozone injector.
“Mr. Clifton approached the ozone injector and was hit with what he described as a “massive cloud of ozone”, which came from the injector area,” the lawsuit states .
”The hazardous levels of ambient ozone immediately caused the ozone generator to shut down and the City discovered there was a leak on the pressure regulator located around the injector line.”
Clifton experienced respiratory and pulmonary issues and sought medical treatment for those injuries, according to the lawsuit.
The city’s lawsuit blames W.M. Lyles Co. and Carollo Engineering for the worker’s injuries, alleging the incidents were a result of a combination of things, including “the improper installation of the ozone injection system and the installation of unsuitable and substandard parts of an ozone injection and monitoring system.”
