The board of the Santa Fe city and county’s joint Buckman Direct Diversion agreed to a $36 million settlement last week in a lawsuit against firms responsible for designing and constructing the water project, the agreement shows.
The settlement wraps up a portion of a case the board filed in 2018 after a variety of issues were discovered with the river diversion, including concerns over piping and raw-water pumps.
The settlement was between CH2M Hill/Western Summit Constructors, referred to in the settlement as Joint Ventures Parties, which handled construction and design for the decade-old project.
According to the settlement documents, neither party admitted wrongdoing. The agreement does not include CDM Smith Inc., the firm that handled the project’s engineering work.
