Public comments made by the director of the Bradford Sanitary Authority regarding Bob Cummins Construction have drawn the company’s ire.

At the Sanitary Authority meeting Tuesday, Executive Director Steve Disney commented on a piece of equipment at the wastewater treatment plant. He said the equipment had been malfunctioning in the cold weather and credited the authority’s staff with keeping things running smoothly.

Disney said Cummins chose and installed the sequencing batch reactors.

On Thursday, Don Cummins, senior project manager for Cummins Construction, said, “Not one thing went into that plant without being reviewed and approved by Gannett Fleming,” the authority’s engineering firm.

Cummins provided the project specifications for the sequencing batch reactor (SBR), showing that Gannett Fleming offered three choices for acceptable manufacturers: ABJ Sanitaire, Ashbrook Simon Hartley and Aqua Aerobics.

The first choice, ABJ Sanitaire, was too costly, so Cummins went with Ashbrook.

“Because Bob Cummins Construction did not use Gannett Fleming’s favored and more costly manufacturer, they have made things difficult for us for the entire project,” Don Cummins said on Thursday.

Disney said in a press release that the SBRs had been “plagued by poor performance” and must be frequently bypassed due to cold temperatures.

Cummins disagreed. First, he said, “The number one metric that any wastewater treatment plant is judged by is its effluent quality — the quality of the treated wastewater entering the waterway, Tuna Creek. For nine years and counting, the effluent quality has been excellent — no violations, no fines, no deficiencies. It is a matter of (Department of Environmental Protection) record.”

The Sanitary Authority sued Gannet Fleming in 2020, Cummins stated. It was the engineers who wrote the specifications for the project, including “the temperature range required to be met by the equipment manufacturer,” he continued, providing the bid specifications for the project.

The air temperature range required to be met, according to the specifications from Gannett Fleming, are for 20 to 90 degrees.

This week, Bradford has seen temperatures of -18 degrees with wind chills in the -30 range.

Those temperatures were not in the bid, and should not be blamed on Cummins Construction, Don Cummins said.

“Throughout nine years, two trials, numerous depositions and 18 days of testimony, SBRs being frequently bypassed due to cold temperatures was never mentioned once,” he said, “and if indeed it is an issue, the responsibility rests solely on the writer of the specifications, Gannett Fleming.”

Cummins said he felt the construction company is being blamed for any issues that crop up, including routine maintenance. All of this, he argues, is due to the ongoing lawsuit, on which the authority has spent $3.5 million.

“I just want a fair shot, that’s all,” he said.