Chrin Landfill Claims Professional Negligence and Defective Design By Its Liner-System Engineering Firm Caused Slope Failure In 2013

EASTON, Pa., July 24, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Chrin Landfill, which in 2013 experienced  a highly disruptive, nearly 12-acre slope failure, is asserting that the failure was the result of professional negligence and defective design by its consulting engineering firm Civil and Environmental Consultants, Inc. (CEC), according to an amended complaint (Chrin Landfill v. Civil and Environmental Consultants, Inc. et al. No. CV-214-12022) filed today by plaintiff's counsel Land Air Walter Legal Solutions, LLC, in Northampton County Court of Common Pleas.

In the amended complaint, Northampton County-based Chrin alleges that Pittsburgh-headquartered CEC defectively designed the landfill's geosynthetic liner system. Specifically, the design allegedly incorporated inadequate static and seismic strength, used incorrect interface strengths, projected incorrect factors of safety, and failed to mandate construction conformance testing to determine whether the geosynthetic liner materials manufactured by GSE would perform as required. According to expert reports prepared by civil and environmental engineering professor Timothy D. Stark, Ph.D., PE, of the University of Illinois, and previously submitted to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the root cause of the significant slope failure was inadequate design and stability analyses; inadequate specifications, testing, and manufacturing of geosynthetic materials; and lack of construction conformance testing. Chrin, according to the court record, has incurred substantial costs pursuant to DEP approval, to relocate the 12 acres of waste within its boundaries, make repairs to the landfill infrastructure, re-design the landfill, and install a new liner system in the slide area. In addition to the opinions of Prof. Stark, Chrin's expert team includes geotechnical engineering professor Edward Kavazanjian, Ph.D., PE, Arizona State University; and landfill designer Richard Thiel, M.S., PE.

Plaintiff is represented by Berwyn-based John P. Judge, and Andrew Klein of Land Air Water Legal Solutions, LLC. The Houston-based manufacturer and installer of the liner system, GSE Environmental Inc. (GSE), and Chrin recently reached a settlement, the terms of which are confidential. The jury trial against remaining defendant CEC, scheduled to start in November 2020, is expected to last two to three weeks before the Honorable Samuel Murray.

SOURCE Land Air Water Legal Solutions, LLC