Contractor sues EWU over wells
A contractor hired to drill two water wells for Eastern Washington University has filed a $3.5 million state claim that alleges the university withheld important information about what the driller might find underground.
The claim also alleges that EWU defamed and libeled the contractor by blaming it for project problems. The claim alleges that EWU was under pressure from the Seattle Seahawks summer-camp contract negotiations to address water concerns, which led EWU to use the contractor as a scapegoat.
The well project was not completed, and EWU essentially fired the contractor last year.
An EWU spokesman said officials did not want to comment on an open investigation.
The tort claim was filed in November with the risk management division of the state Office of Financial Management. A state investigation must be completed before the matter can be filed as a lawsuit.
The project began in June 2003. Elcon Construction, of Spokane, was hired to dig two 750-foot wells to increase the school’s water supply. When the first well hit 750 feet but didn’t produce enough water, university officials told the company to keep digging or face sanctions, said Elcon’s owner, Brook Ellingwood.
Ellingwood said the $1.6 million contract drew three bids, and his company was awarded the contract. He began drilling June 13, but by mid-September, drillers encountered problems with sand and soil falling back into the hole when they reached about 440 feet, according to the claim.
On Sept. 15, work stopped as a drill bit broke off and Elcon discovered the drilling conditions were different from those represented in the contract documents and other information supplied by EWU, according to the tort claim.
“They conveyed to us that we would be drilling through rock,” which makes for easier drilling than sand because it doesn’t cave in, Ellingwood said.
According to the claim, “While this condition was unforeseen by claimants, it was not unforeseen by EWU.”
In April, attorneys for Elcon discovered in EWU documents a report the university commissioned several years ago. The 2000 report addressed geological conditions that would have likely been encountered where the wells were to be dug, according to the claim.
According to the claim, the report recommends a 1,500-foot well. Water flow at 750 feet would have never reached desired flows of 900 gallons a minute, the report stated. Two EWU wells and seven city of Cheney wells in the vicinity were studied, and not one encountered water flows at 750 feet that would meet EWU’s desired standards.
The report also recommended that any new well should be dug in a campus corner far from where contractors were asked to dig.
“Claimants believe that EWU representatives actively and intentionally concealed this information with the intent to induce the claimants to submit a lower bid,” according to the claim.
A bid requiring a 1,500-foot well would have greatly upped the bids and limited the number of companies that could compete, Ellingwood said. He said the conflict has crippled his business.