A small resort town in Southern California had a major break in the sewer main near one of their pump stations causing widespread flooding in the immediate area, affecting several small businesses including a restaurant and several light industrial companies there. The lack of sewer service also resulted in and shutting down the beaches and businesses throughout the town. Sewage was flowing towards the ocean which would have presented another set of major and much more costly problems. We were called by the City and responded by immediately assessing the situation, identifying priorities and the necessary professionals that would be needed to effectively address all issues. We provided the City with a plan of action at our first inspection.
The first step was to identify who at the City had the authority to make decisions with regards to taking the appropriate action. With the recognition that the longer the cleanup would take the more costly the project would end up being, we set in place a communication plan to make sure that all scope, cost and process issues were presented to all stakeholders in this matter (City management, claimants who were also sewer customers, remediation contractors, hygienists, etc.) to ensure that informed and timely decisions could be made and the work could proceed as quickly as possible.
It was determined that the City’s own personnel would be the most efficient in completing the repair to the sewer lines. The City relied on SPLM to manage the cleanup and remediation as well as handle the third-party claims of those affected by this loss. This work consisted of:
Containing the sewage at the beach so it would not reach the ocean;
Bringing an industrial hygienist on board that would help determine the scope of repairs and provide the clearance testing and reports certifying the success of the remediation;
Calling and managing the right remediation company that could quickly set the containment at the beaches, complete the remediation work at the affected properties, provide the documentation showing the scope of work and ensuring that the work was done in the most cost effective manner;
Working with various contractors in reaching agreement with them on all of the repairs that remained at the small businesses that were directly affected by the sewage that remained at the conclusion of the remediation work. This consisted of repairs involving drywall, painting, floor coverings, etc.;
Investigating the cause of the break in the sewer main and building a case for recovering the City’s cost through a claim with the company contracted to manage the City’s sewer system.
As a result of SPLM’s leadership and involvement in this loss, a situation that could have easily taken several months to resolve was settled within a few short weeks of the initial event. Sewage never reached the ocean, and businesses that were directly affected were back in business within a few days, minimizing (and in some cases eliminating) loss of business income. In short, a claim that could have exceeded $1,000,000 was handled in a manner that resulted in remediation and claim costs that were only a fraction of that amount. The client was extremely satisfied, as well as several claimants who were also customers of the City’s sewer system.
.