Post Falls approves Wigan service contract, accepts reduced membrane warranty tied to DuPont ship date

The Post Falls City Council approved a new service contract with Wigan Water Technologies and accepted adjusted warranty terms for the tertiary membrane filtration modules used in the city’s water reclamation facility.

Public Works Director John Beacham said the membrane equipment has been in operation with city staff since March 31, 2025, but the manufacturer’s warranty (DuPont, previously Dow Chemical) provided to Wigan was dated from the modules’ ship date. That earlier start date backdated DuPont’s warranty, effectively shortening the warranty window the city would receive if Wigan simply passed its existing DuPont warranty through unchanged.

Beacham told the council the city’s contract specified a one‑year full warranty followed by a six‑year prorated warranty on the modules themselves; DuPont’s paperwork to Wigan used an earlier start date. Wigan proposed reducing the prorated warranty exposure it would carry to reflect the manufacturer’s timeline while offering an alternative: continued remote technical support and site visits to help operations staff run the system correctly and extend module life. Beacham said that ongoing technical support is valuable because “when our operations staff get an alarm in the middle of the night that they don't understand, they have someone to call.”

The membrane filtration package and associated equipment cost roughly $3 million when procured through the general contractor; modules typically last seven to 12 years and, according to the staff analysis, each additional year of module life preserved could yield roughly $143,000 in replacement‑cost savings. Staff estimated the expected value of warranty risk (given a historical failure rate of roughly 5–7%) and concluded the service contract’s ongoing operational support provides better overall value to ratepayers than insisting Wigan assume full extended warranty risk tied to DuPont’s earlier ship date.

Councilors asked for written clarification from DuPont about warranty start dates and discussed whether Wigan was aware of those terms at bid; staff said the city received assurances at bid that warranty terms would be met but was not privy to supply‑chain documents showing ship dates. Council approved the motion to accept Wigan’s proposed terms and to enter a separate service agreement.

Next steps: staff will execute the service contract, pursue close‑out and payment adjustments with the general contractor (Sletten Construction), resolve related schedule/time claims, and schedule an operations tour of the new tertiary facility for councilors.