BRUNSWICK COUNTY — After years of waiting for effective water treatment against PFAS contamination, Brunswick County is now in a legal battle with its contractor for a water treatment expansion project facing repeated delays.
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Brunswick County filed a lawsuit against Oscar Renda Contracting, Inc. for breach of contract and repeated delays on the Northwest Water Treatment Plant expansion and reverse osmosis PFAS treatment. The complaint alleges that Oscar Renda failed to meet multiple deadlines for the $122.6-million project, which was originally slated for completion in December 2023.
After a series of default notices and forbearance agreements, the county officially terminated the contract on July 25, the same day it filed its lawsuit. As a result of these failures, Brunswick County Board of Commissioners approved a contract amendment on July 21 with engineering firm CDM Smith, Inc. for just more than $1 million to extend construction administration services and allow for continued project oversight while the county seeks a new contractor to complete the work. It was set to expire on July 28, 2025.
The county has stated the extension with CDM Smith will not result in any water rate increases for customers.
“This has been a very sore subject with me for a long time, like, why isn’t this progressing, that we progress 2% every four or five months?” Commissioner Chair Mike Forte told Port City Daily. “How about we put some bodies on the job and get this going? But it falls on deaf ears and they’re just defiant. It was just time, we ran out of patience.”
The Northwest Water Treatment Plant expansion is Brunswick County’s largest capital project, designed to double the plant’s capacity from 24 to 48 million gallons per day. Notably, the plan involves installing a low-pressure reverse osmosis system for the removal of PFAS and 1,4-dioxane from the Cape Fear River, where water is sourced.
In its complaint, the county alleges Oscar Renda’s failures were not limited to missed deadlines but also poor workmanship. The lawsuit specifically cites a concrete spillage in the filter underdrain system in March of 2023 that failed to conform to specifications. It also notes a piping system collapse in August of 2023, which occurred because the system was pressurized before its supports were properly installed.
The lawsuit names Zurich American Insurance Company and Federal Insurance Company as defendants as well. As sureties for the project, the companies were legally obligated to guarantee the contractor’s work would be completed on time.
According to the complaint, Brunswick County issued a notice of default on November 20, 2023, and again on July 9, 2024, and on both occasions formally requested the sureties “promptly take over the work.” The county alleges that because the sureties failed to fulfill their obligation, they are now jointly liable with the contractor for damages, including the cost to complete the remainder of the project and ongoing financial penalties.
The county is seeking to recover two types of damages. First, it is demanding money to cover the cost to hire a new contractor and fix all work which failed to meet specifications. This amount is “to be determined at trial” because the final expenses for hiring a new contractor and finishing the work are not yet known.
Second, the county is pursuing liquidated damages of $5,500 per day from June 30, 2023, a penalty outlined in the original contract for any delays incurred. The suit also asks the court to award the county attorney fees and to grant “other and further relief as the Court may deem just and proper.”
The lawsuit details a timeline of Oscar Renda Contracting’s failures and the county’s attempts to remedy them before final termination. The original deadline for the project’s final completion was December 10, 2023, a date Oscar Renda Contracting failed to meet due to what the suit alleges as “poor workmanship.”
Following the missed deadline, the county issued its first notice of default on November 20, 2023, and requested the sureties to take over the project.
However, the county then entered into a forbearance agreement in December 2023, giving the company a new deadline of May 1, 2024. A forbearance agreement allows a contractor more time to complete the work in exchange for the county temporarily not terminating the contract.
When the May 2024 deadline was also missed due to more delays, the county issued a second notice of default on July 9, 2024, leading to a second forbearance agreement in August 2024. The county alleges that Oscar Renda failed to satisfy the final terms, ultimately leading to the contract’s official termination on July 25, 2025.
Forte called the whole situation “embarassing.”
“We’re the ones who look inept. The contractor is out of Texas. They won’t come before us. I have been demanding for, oh my goodness, six, seven, maybe eight months. I want them here, get them before us in a meeting and they won’t do it,” Forte said. “They’re ghosting us. They will send an email, ‘we need more money,’ heck no. Get to where you’re supposed to be. Don’t ask us for money.”
Port City Daily reached out to Oscar Renda Contracting parent company, Southland Holdings, LLC, for comment on the contract termination and the pending lawsuit. A response was not received by press.
Oscar Renda Contracting has a history of legal disputes similar to the Brunswick case. In a 2021 legal battle over a delayed project in Biloxi, Mississippi, the company filed a lawsuit seeking $79 million for extra work, while the city withheld $4.5 million in liquidated damages. The case was not publicly resolved.
The company was also sued by homeowners in El Paso, Texas, in 2023 for property damage from construction activities related to vibrations from heavy equipment. In one of those lawsuits, a jury found Oscar Renda Contracting negligent in causing homeowners’ property damage and awarded $237,000 in damages.
Forte said the county is still working to identify qualified contractors to complete the project and has not yet issued a new one for bids. A project timeline is unavailable currently.
County spokesperson Amber Merklinger wrote in a statement to PCD the county is “actively exploring the best legal methods to find a new construction contractor to continue the project as quickly and realistically as possible.”
“Brunswick County is committed to making sure the expansion and reverse osmosis project at the Northwest Water Treatment Plant is completed exactly as planned and designed,” Merklinger wrote. “This action was necessary to protect the best interests of our residents who have waited far too long for a solution to removing PFAS from our drinking water.”
The county has been battling PFAS contamination in its water for years. In 2020 — the same year as the construction contract for the Northwest Plant expansion was awarded to Oscar Renda Contracting — testing by the Environmental Working Group revealed significant PFAS contamination. From the study, a January 2020 sample collected at Belville Elementary School showed a total PFAS concentration of 189 parts-per-trillion, marking the highest level found among 44 metropolitan areas surveyed.
More recently, previous test results from November 2024 showed that levels of PFOS (9.96 ppt) and PFOA (5.09 ppt) in the finished water were both above the EPA’s maximum contaminant level (MCL) of 4 ppt. The most recent data from a June 8, 2025, test shows a decrease, with PFOA at 1.86 ppt and PFOS at 8.44 ppt. While the PFOA level has dropped below the federal limit, the PFOS level remains more than double the MCL.
In comparison, Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, which also draws water from the Cape Fear River, has successfully addressed PFAS contamination at its Sweeney Water Treatment Plant. The plant’s granular activated carbon filtration system, operational since late 2022, consistently produces finished water with PFOA and PFOS at non-detectable levels, well below the 4 ppt MCL.
In addition to opening the lawsuit against Oscar Renda, Brunswick County has been involved in a long-running lawsuit against chemical companies DuPont and its subsidiary, Chemours. Originally filed in 2017, along with other downstream communities, including the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority (CFPUA), it alleges the corporations knowingly discharged PFAS chemicals, including GenX, into the Cape Fear River for decades.
The plaintiffs are seeking to hold the companies financially accountable for the costs required to install expensive new water treatment technology — like the reverse osmosis system — to filter out the contamination. A trial date to determine whether Chemours and DuPont are financially liable is expected to be set in 2026.
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