May 26, 2011 in News, City

High court upholds sewage plant disaster penalty

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The state’s highest court upheld a $6.5 million ruling today against an engineering firm found responsible for the implosion of a sewage digester that killed a Spokane sewer plant worker and injured two others in 2004.

The Washington Supreme Court affirmed the decision by retired Superior Court Judge Robert Austin, who ruled in 2008 that CH2M Hill caused the event and should pay more than $6 million to the families of the workers.

“Mike Cmos died on May 10, 2004. It’s been more than seven years for his family,” attorney Dan Huntington said. “It’s been a long haul.”

Writing for the majority, Justice Tom Chambers invoked a Babylonian king who died in 1750 B.C. in explaining the long-held legal standing.

“At least since the time of Hammurabi’s code, construction design professionals had a duty not to cause injury or death because of a collapse of a building,” he wrote in part. “The trial court’s conclusion that there was no independent intervening cause that superseded the negligence” of CH2M Hill … “is supported by substantial evidence.”

Along with the six justices who signed Chambers’ opinion, three other justices signed a concurrence opinion that disagreed with the legal conclusions found by the majority. However, the other three justices also found different legal reasons to affirm Austin’s decision.

Huntington said he’d already spoken with the Cmos family about the decision.

“They have a lot of relief and are thankful that the Supreme Court affirmed Judge Austin’s decision,” he said. “There is also thankfulness that this whole thing is finally over.”

On May 10, 2004, Cmos was ordered to go check on a large sewage digester at Spokane’s wastewater treatment plant. The tank imploded and Cmos fell into the sludge, where his body was recovered three days later. Also injured in the collapse were city workers Dan Evans and Larry Michaels.

In his ruling on Sept. 30, 2008, Austin did not put the blame on city officials but rather ruled that the engineer from CH2M Hill was negligent in its suggested changes to the digester, which processes solid wastes at a high temperature to make the solids stable enough to be used as commercial fertilizer.

Following his decision, Austin ordered CH2M Hill to pay $2.6 million to the Cmos estate; $2 million to his widow, Kathy; and $650,000 to their daughter, Jennifer, who was 12 at the time Cmos was killed.

Austin also ordered the engineering firm to pay $1 million to Evans, who suffered broken bones and $250,000 to Michaels, who suffered a serious knee injury. The judge also awarded Michael’s wife $50,000.

The state fined the city $22,000 for 16 violations of worker safety rules and $6,000 for release of the sewage into the Spokane River.

Huntington said he applauded the city for taking security measures to try and make sure a similar incident doesn’t occur in the future. But he noted that a month after Austin’s decision, city leaders entered into another $30 million contract with CH2M Hill to rebuild the digesters.

Then Spokane County entered into a contract in early 2009 to pay about $170 million for CH2M Hill to construct and operate its solid waste facility.

“It’s a little ironic that the rebuilding project was done by CH2M Hill, which Judge Austin found to be negligent in the destruction of the digester to begin with,” Huntington said. “I have often wondered why our city council members or county commissioners have not asked CH2M Hill about Judge Austin’s ruling and what, if anything, they will be doing different when they give them multi-million dollar sewage treatment contracts.”

Seattle attorney Ken Masters, who with other attorneys represented CH2M Hill, said he hadn’t talked to his client yet, “so I can’t comment.”

Eight comments on this story so far. Add yours!

• 

  Draco on May 26 at 4:01 p.m.

  Ironic, you say? Is it ironic that the former public works director for the City is now President of CH2MHill Spokane?

• 

  eagleproducer on May 26 at 7:05 p.m.

  Not too often The Code of Hamurabi is invoked to provide legal precedent these days…

  He sounds like Socialist.

  Draco: Not ironic. It’s called business as usual around here.

• 

  misjustice on May 26 at 7:42 p.m.

  Draco, it’s the “Revolving Door” theory.

• 

  geoffocache on May 26 at 8:23 p.m.

  Funny thing is that CH2 is still engineering for the plant. They seem to think that having a PE after their name makes their ideas superior to those who have to work with the systems. They must realize the most plant employees have PE’s after their names too. It’s called Practical Experience. My opinion is that they are still selling snake oil to the plant. Go take a tour of the plant. I am sure that the employees will point out the lemons the city was sold recently. Every time I visit the plant, I am appalled by all the crap that has been eating away at the budget.

• 

  mdriftmeyer on May 26 at 8:51 p.m.

  Sorry, geoffocache but the PE after the name standards for Principle Engineer.

  As a Mechanical Engineer you go through two phases after your ABET accredited B.S. They are Engineer in Training [E.I.T] and Principles of Engineering [P.E.] State Examinations.

  Taking the EIT cuts one’s time to qualify to test on the PE examination from 12 years to 4 years.

  It’s a comprehensive 8 hour examination with several hundred multipart problems to solve encompassing your entire curriculum and recommended electives in Engineering Economics and other Engineering electives outside your own core degree.

  It does not stand for Practice Experience. Practical Experience without a Principle Engineer as your mentor means you achieve ZERO experience towards your P.E. examination, assuming you’re actually an Engineer.

  I’m not going to defend CH2MHill. They have no excuses for such business cutting procedures and it is typical of engineers who take the MBA route to commonly become Business first, Engineers second. This often calls for not choosing the best [highest up front cost and best solution with the lowest maintenance as the first choice] solution but the worst solution that drives the lowest upfront cost but the highest maintenance back costs.

  Most firms choose this because they aren’t required, by law, to choose the best solution—low bid contracts are self-fulfilling prophecies of repeat solutions to solving problems correctly.

  There are varying factors of safety in any Engineering Project and laws that require the minimum level of safety to meet the laws. It’s a rare firm, even with CH2MHill’s well known reputation, that will win contracts with the best solution.

  How come? Politics. People who don’t grasp the concept that you get what you pay for are doomed to see second rate solutions.

  Politicians care about the short-term and not the long-term costs on their constituents. If they chose the best solution every time, the long-term costs are always less, but the upfront costs are much greater—most people don’t grasp how much fixing second rate solutions actually costs over time.

  Corporations compete for State contracts on the low bid focus. Change the focus and you’ll get better solutions, for a higher initial price. You’ll be glad that the long-term costs are considerably less and your resources can move on to other projects, instead of revisiting similar projects over and over.

• 

  james_l on May 26 at 9:13 p.m.

  mdriftmeyer:

  PE stands for Professional Engineer, not Principle Engineer; see http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=18.43.020.

  While construction contracts are advertised and usually awarded to the lowest bidder, state law specifically prohibits selection of professional engineering services by low bid. The process used to select professional services is Qualification Based selection (QBS), as defined here: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=39.80.040.

• 

  DickAdams on May 26 at 9:57 p.m.

  CM2MHill, in my opinion, has a lock on the business having government projects through out the country. Our State, our county, and our cities in the pacific north west seem to all cow tow to the company. The city of Spokane have spent millions of dollars hiring the services of cm2mhill.. I suppose the first poster is referring to Phil Williams. Williams got caught publicly lying to the city of Spokane, the city council, and the viewers of channel 5 watching the council meeting.

• 

  james_l on May 26 at 11:24 p.m.

  DickAdams

  I believe the first poster is referring to Roger Flint, who voluntarily left his position as Public Works Director for the position at CH2M Hill, who he previously gave questionable contracts to, over the objections of many on the selection committees: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2006/may/24/commissioner-questions-flints-new-job/

  Phil Williams, the manager of the Solid Waste System, was fired by the City of Spokane after his long term affair with a consultant he supervised became public. Williams was later fired by the City of Bremerton where he was the Public Works Director. No reason was given for the Bremerton firing.

  I can see why you may be confused. One was an affair involving sex with a consultant that was being supervised, and the other was an affair involving money. Flint directly approved change orders and overruns immediately prior to his taking the job from the company who benefited. Williams was merely indulging his libido, with no apparent monetary gain.