(Cayce) January 13, 2006 - On Friday, a state circuit court judge in Lexington awarded a judgment for the City of Cayce against Tin Products, Inc., and five related companies, in the amount of $21,395,041.
Judge Larry Patterson entered the order of judgment following a hearing to determine the damages to the City arising from the February 2000 contamination of Red Bank Creek and Congaree Creek.
Congaree Creek was the City's source of raw water until the contamination forced the closing of the City water treatment plant.
The damages hearing was part of the city's lawsuit, filed in January 2003, against Tin Products and related companies.
Tin Products and five other defendants were determined to be in default in the suit by a previous court order in July. The effect of default is a deemed admission of the allegations of liability. The purpose of Friday's court hearing was to determine the amount of the City's damages.
At the hearing, Cayce City Manager John Sharpe testified that the closing of the water plant in February 2000 required the City to purchase, on an emergency basis, treated water from other government water systems for two years.
West Columbia, Columbia, and the Lexington County Joint Water and Sewer Commission sold water to Cayce for its customers during that period. These purchases totaled more than $4,000,000. To connect to the Columbia system, Cayce had to spend more than $500,000 to construct piping under the Blossom Street Bridge, which spans the Congaree River between the two cities.
Because of concerns over the use in the future of the Congaree Creek as a water source, the Cayce City Council, in May 2000, began construction of a new water intake facility on the Congaree River. That facility, which began operations in March 2002, takes raw water out of the Congaree River.
The raw water is then piped for a distance of three miles to the City water treatment plant off U. S. Highway 321 near the Moss Creek subdivision. The new facility and the three miles of water mains cost the City more than $5,000,000.
The City also was required to revise and upgrade the water plant at a cost of more than $11,000,000.
"We are very pleased at the court's recognition of the huge financial impact this situation had on the City and its citizens and customers," said Cayce Mayor Avery B. Wilkerson.
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