PLEASANT PRAIRIE — A contractor hired by AT&T to relocate an underground communications conduit related to the ongoing 85th Street reconstruction project disputes village officials’ claims blaming its crew for a sanitary sewer break that resulted in residential sewage backups.

Public Works Director John Steinbrink Jr. sent letters dated June 29 to homeowners in the 5200-5400 blocks directing them to file enclosed claim forms directly with the village and AT&T. According to the letters, a crew from MasTec North America, Inc., the contractor, appeared to separate a residential service lateral from the sewer main, causing dirt and gravel to flow into and obstruct the main, leading to sewage backups in 12 homes west of the break at 5218 85th St.

The backups occurred during the heavy rain and related flooding that took place June 19-21 and led to an estimated $11 million in damages. Officials have said 700 or more homes throughout the village were damaged in the storm.

A homeowner in the 5200 block of 85th Street was quoted in the June 23 Kenosha News saying basement sewers that hadn’t flooded in 40 years in the neighborhood started backing up, causing as much as $40,000 in damage. Village Administrator Michael Pollocoff said at the time, “It’s almost physically impossible for that area of the village to flood, and needless to say, those people were very upset.”

Steinbrink’s June 29 letter says Pollocoff will recommend to the Village Board filing a claim against AT&T for “private and public damage caused by negligence.” However, Le Lane, field coordinator for MasTec’s Twin Cities branch, which is in charge of the 85th Street conduit work for AT&T between Cooper Road and 64th Avenue, said Friday he doesn’t believe MasTec’s crew caused the underground sewer break.

“We’re going to redig up the lateral and expose it, and clear up who’s at fault with this,” said Lane, who will be present with AT&T inspectors and insurance company representatives when MasTec’s crew begins digging at 9 a.m. Tuesday at 5218 85th St.

Because the communications conduit overlies a water main by 2 feet, and that, in turn, overlies the sewer lateral and main by an additional 2 or more feet, Lane contends if the crew damaged the bottommost sewer line, they’d likely have damaged the water line, too. However, according to Steinbrink, the water main is not directly between the conduit above and sewer line below but off to the side and not under where MasTec was working.

This will be the second time MasTec reopens the trouble spot for a better look at the break site, according to Lane, who said the crew did so Thursday for an AT&T inspector. Lane said the AT&T inspector determined the crew wasn’t at fault and had them refill the dug-up area. So, he was surprised when AT&T forwarded him copies of the June 29 letter.

“In the process of laying this conduit, we didn’t think we hit anything, and we still don’t believe we did,” Lane said, adding the separation happened on the south side of the road, and his crew was working on the north side. In addition, the crew completed the job at that location June 3. By June 19, when the torrential storms hit, the MasTec crew had worked its way west and was laying conduit near 60th and 61st avenues, Lane said.

“With a sewer system, it’s a high-tech system. So, if there was a fault in there, you certainly would have noticed it by June 4th, 5th, 6th or whatever,” Lane argues. “If you trenched across it and broke it, it would be very difficult to believe it took two weeks not to function. We want to clear the air so everybody’s on the same page and knows we didn’t do it.”

Steinbrink disagreed, saying: “We’ve been having a lot of problems with (MasTec) not following specs. A lot of the details are probably going to end up in litigation so I really don’t want to talk about it a lot.

“They did cross over the lateral, and there was a 4- to 5-inch sag in the line. That’s what caused the lateral to pull out of the main. We had an inspector there when our sanitary service lateral was installed. We had a good connection at the main and a good slope all the way to the house. Everything was in good shape until that work was done (by MasTec). Something caused the damage to the lateral after it was installed. They don’t sag on their own.”

Steinbrink acknowledges MasTec’s crew only worked on the north side of 85th Street. Nevertheless, he is convinced something the crew did caused the problem, which he said went unnoticed until a village utility crew detected the main was obstructed between two manholes just after the June 19 storm.

“We found a bunch of stone in the line, and tracked it back to 5218 85th St. ... (W)e dug it up to make a repair and found the service lateral was pulled out of the main,” Steinbrink said. “I think that all the rainfall that we had on the 19th is what caused all the water flow and the stones to wash through. And the sag was exactly where MasTec was doing their work.”