Deaths At Wichita Falls Waste Plant Not Contractor's Fault, Report Finds
By Sara Jerome,
@sarmje
The death of two workers at a wastewater plant in Wichita Falls, TX, is not the fault of a contractor for the plant, according to an investigative report conducted by the engineering consultant Freese and Nichols on behalf of the city
The probe found that Archer Western Construction LLC, the contractor, “is not responsible for the deaths of” the two workers, Daniel Arredondo and his supervisor, David Sheppard, according to the Times Record News.
The contractor is “a defendant in a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by the widow of city mechanic Daniel Arredondo. The city also is being sued in the death of Arredondo and his supervisor, David Sheppard, who were killed after being exposed to lethal volumes of hydrogen sulfide gas,” the news report said.
The lawsuit alleges that the city and the contractor were negligent leading up to the tragedy.
“The plaintiff asserts that her husband's death was caused by ‘negligence’ and ‘gross negligence.’ She alleges that the defendants improperly maintained equipment, failed to adequately train workers and did not maintain a safe facility, among other claims,” the Times Record News reported.
The newspaper said the complaint includes meager explanation of how the contractor would be responsible. It notes that the company was using chemicals “including but not limited to sulfate,” according to the news report. The city launched an internal probe and hired Freese and Nichols to investigate the tragedy, as well.
“After running a test, Freese and Nicols concluded that the construction company's groundwater pumping was not the cause of the gas buildup. Still, the city directed Archer Western to begin pumping the groundwater into the storm sewers, where it won't come into contact with sewage,” the report said.
During the July 2 tragedy, “the workers were conducting routine maintenance on a pump when they were exposed to hydrogen sulfide gas. Other personnel at the plants found them and called police and fire emergency responders,” according to Daniel Nix, utilities operations manager, per the Times Record News.
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