LONGUEUIL – Residents in Longueuil are filing a class action lawsuit after a two day water ban, claiming city officials were negligent and reckless in warning its residents of the contamination.
At 4 a.m. Wednesday morning, about 28,000 litres of diesel fuel leaked into the St. Lawrence River from a waste water treatment plant in Longueuil.
Local officials took more than five hours to notify the government of the overnight diesel spill.
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Longueuil mayor Caroline Saint-Hilaire initially announced the water was safe to drink.
She retracted that statement around 10:30 a.m. Thursday morning – more than 24 hours after the spill – telling residents the water was actually not safe for consumption.
According to Jacky-Éric Salvant, the lawyer launching the suit, several resident became ill during this time.
READ MORE: Longueuil water ban lifted: tap water safe to drink after diesel spill
The lawsuit asks for $100 for each of the 300,000 affected residents in Vieux-Longueuil, Saint-Hubert, Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville and Boucherville.
This would amount to a total of $29 million.
Residents are also asking for compensation because they claim they were greatly inconvenienced by the ban, which was lifted on Friday.
Saint-Hilaire, along with Boucherville mayor Jean Martel and Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville mayor Martin Murray, will launch an internal investigation to figure out what exactly happened.
The results of the investigation will be made public, insists the mayors.
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