“The plant as designed and engineered does not comply with the contract specifications in that the plant cannot operate at the contracted capacity,” the city said in the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Woodbury County District Court.

The lawsuit charges Veenstra & Kimm with breach of contract and negligence and seeks compensation for the city’s ongoing and future costs to repair the water plant.

Veenstra & Kimm president Bob Veenstra said Wednesday that he was unaware that the lawsuit had been filed and could not comment.

Citing the pending litigation, Sergeant Bluff officials have declined further comment on the suit. In a press release, the city said its water is safe and that residents should not be concerned about using or drinking it.

According to the lawsuit, the city hired Veenstra & Kimm in 2008 to study its future water needs, costs for a water plant that would provide iron and manganese removal, and costs for water wells to supply it. The firm was later contracted to review the city’s facilities at that time, study site selection for a new water treatment plant and provide an estimate on operating costs.

In November 2008, Veenstra & Kimm recommended that the city build a new water plant, and the city contracted with the firm to design a facility cable of handling approximately 2.2 million gallons per day, including iron and manganese removal, and also be capable of possible future expansion.

The city’s website says the plant, at 50 S. Lewis Blvd., is capable of producing 2.7 million gallons of water per day and has the ability to upgrade production to 4.2 million gallons.

Sergeant Bluff contends the firm designed the plant with equipment incapable of producing at the required level and that the firm did not analyze and use all the water data while designing the project.

The engineering firm attempted to make the plant operational according to contract terms, the lawsuit said, but walked away from the project in August 2014.