Mass. company accused of destroying Lincoln pump house with 400-pound well plug

Oct. 22—A Massachusetts firm allegedly caused a 400-pound well plug to shoot up through the roof of a Lincoln Water District pump house, before the plug fell back down and destroyed the building.

That's the claim in a new lawsuit the Lincoln Water District has filed against the Massachusetts firm as it seeks to recover the cost of replacing the destroyed building.

The water district is seeking $425,000 in damages from Denis L. Maher Co. LLC of Sterling, Massachusetts, in a lawsuit filed last Friday in Penobscot County Superior Court. That figure is what it cost to replace the building, according to the water district's complaint against the company.

On Oct. 19, 2018, workers from the firm were performing maintenance at the well in Lincoln Pump House No. 2 by introducing high carbon dioxide pressure into the well, located at 49 Station Road in Lincoln, the complaint said.

The purpose of the maintenance was to improve the well's efficiency. But the high carbon dioxide pressure caused the packer, a plug at the bottom of the well that weighs more than 400 pounds, to fail, the complaint said.

"The packer was ejected out of the well and through the roof of pump house No. 2," the court document said. "The packer re-entered the pump house at a different location of the roof."

The lawsuit claims the Massachusetts company's negligence caused the packer to be ejected.

The water district's insurance covered all but about $45,000 of the cost of replacing the building. The lawsuit is asking that the company that performed the work on the well pay the full cost of replacing the building.

The Massachusetts firm has not yet been served with the complaint, according to the e-filing system at the Bangor courthouse. The company didn't respond to a request for comment on Thursday.