By WILLIAM LAMB
Nov 01, 2000 (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)—The Land-O-Sun Dairy has dropped a breach-of-contract claim it had filed against the city of O'Fallon, Ill., for building and later shutting down a faulty wastewater pre-treatment plant at the dairy's processing plant.
Instead, the dairy will team with the city to seek damages from the contractors that designed, built and operated the plant, which the dairy alleged was plagued by "serious and repeated operational problems" before the city shut it down in 1997.
In addition, Land-O-Sun will pay a part of the $400,000 that the city has charged the dairy to treat wastewater at its main sewage plant, according to O'Fallon Mayor Gary Graham.
"I never felt they had a good claim against the city," Graham said.
The agreements were part of a tentative settlement that city officials brokered with dairy executives in August that Graham called a "win-win" for the city. More details will be released after the city council ratifies the settlement, he said. Such a vote has not yet been scheduled.
The city and dairy now are seeking $75,000 each from the company that designed and built the plant, and the company that operated and maintained it.
The dairy earlier had placed part of the blame for the plant's problems on inadequate funding from the city, which built it with a $500,000 interest-free loan, a $100,000 grant from St. Clair County and $75,000 in local funds.
When the lowest bid came in nearly $150,000 over budget, the city announced that it would welcome alternate design proposals so long as they met effluent requirements.
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