Duck River Dam could use a little Dutch boy right about now.

The City of Cullman Board of Utilities filed a lawsuit Friday against its engineer, contractor and bond company on the Duck River Dam Reservoir project to compel one or all three to fix excessive leakage flows at the $100 million project.

CH2M Hill Engineers Inc., ASI Construction Inc., and Western Surety Company are named in the civil complaint filed in Cullman County Circuit Court by board attorney Roy Williams.

Since the Christmas 2015 flood, excessive water has flowed from the reservoir and into and through the concrete portion of the dam and gallery — an internal concrete corridor that runs the length of the spillway and into the west embankment.

According to the board’s complaint, ASI, the contractor, claims CH2M’s design was deficient and made construction more difficult and expensive.

In response, CH2M claimed that the problems ASI mentioned were “self-inflicted” since it didn’t follow contract documents, was behind on construction and didn’t install emergency diversion features to allow for drainage following the December 2015 flooding.

“Every dam is designed to have water flow through it. It relieves the pressure inside it,” said Cullman Economic Development Agency Director Dale Greer in a press conference Friday. “From the time that reservoir filled, there’s been more water than what was intended.”

Greer said the board consulted other engineering firms to determine what was causing the excessive leakage. He emphasized that the dam itself is structurally sound.

“For 18 months, we’ve tried to get the engineer and general contractor to correct the problem… but it’s never been done,” Greer said. “Each is blaming each other.”

The lawsuit charges engineer CH2M with breach of contract, negligence; general contractor ASI Constructors with breach of contract/equitable relief and negligence/equitable relief; bond company Western Surety with breach of contract/equitable relief and declaratory judgement against all three.

“What we’re asking the court to do is not award us money, but help us identify which is in breach of contract… and direct whichever one is responsible to correct that problem so that we end up with the product that we’re intended to have,” Greer said.

This month, the board discovered that water had infiltrated the gallery’s electrical system which opens and closes the gates to the dam.

The board just bid the pipeline work that will connect the reservoir to a pump station which will go out for bids next.

The 650-acre reservoir is in a testing period and is not scheduled to come online until next year.

Located six miles east of the Cullman water treatment plant, the Duck River Reservoir is designed to meet the water needs of Cullman residents for the next 75 years. Once completed, the reservoir will be capable of pumping 24 million gallons of water per day.

The $100-million-dollar construction project features a dam spanning 2,000 feet long and 135 feet high.