Bonneau Dickson, PE, is a licensed sanitary engineer in Berkeley, CA, with 40+ years of experience in wastewater and forensic engineering.

BERKELEY, CA, UNITED STATES, October 14, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Water and wastewater infrastructure failures can create complex technical and legal questions involving system design, construction, capacity, operation, maintenance, flooding, contamination, and property damage. Bonneau Dickson, PE, a licensed sanitary engineer with more than four decades of water and wastewater engineering experience, has extensive experience examining these issues through forensic engineering and expert witness investigations.

Water and wastewater systems consist of interconnected components that must perform under specific physical and operating conditions. A failure in one component can affect other parts of a system and, in some cases, result in sewage overflows, water contamination, flooding, service interruptions, or damage to private and public property.

When such incidents become part of a legal dispute, determining what happened requires more than documenting the resulting damage. Technical evidence must be gathered, reviewed, and analyzed to determine whether the available facts support particular explanations for the failure.

Infrastructure Failures Can Have Multiple Causes
A water or wastewater failure does not necessarily have one obvious cause. Several conditions may contribute to an incident, including inadequate capacity, improper installation, deterioration, blockages, equipment failure, poor maintenance, changes in system use, unusual flows, or environmental conditions.

For instance, a sewage overflow may be associated with a blocked sewer, damaged pipe, excessive inflow and infiltration, pump station problems, insufficient capacity, or a combination of factors. A stormwater flooding event may involve drainage capacity, rainfall, grading, detention facilities, pump performance, or maintenance conditions.

A forensic engineering investigation considers these possibilities in relation to the physical evidence and available technical records.

Defining the Questions Before Examining the Evidence
A technical investigation generally begins by identifying the engineering questions that need to be answered. These questions can vary significantly from one case to another.

An investigation may seek to determine whether a sewer had sufficient capacity for actual flows, whether a pump station was operating as designed, whether a septic system was properly designed or maintained, or whether a water distribution system could provide the required service.

Other cases may involve questions about construction practices, infrastructure deterioration, drainage conditions, water contamination, or the relationship between an alleged defect and resulting property damage.

Clearly defining the technical questions helps establish the appropriate scope of document review, field investigation, calculations, and other forms of analysis.

Reviewing Engineering and Historical Records
Documents can provide an important record of how infrastructure was designed, constructed, operated, and maintained.

Depending on the circumstances, relevant records may include engineering plans, specifications, hydraulic calculations, construction documents, inspection reports, maintenance records, operating data, repair records, photographs, laboratory results, correspondence, and previous engineering studies.

Reviewing these materials can help establish the intended design and operating conditions of a system. The information can then be compared with actual field conditions or reported circumstances.

Historical records can also help identify changes to a system over time. Modifications, repairs, expansions, changes in usage, or maintenance practices may be relevant when examining an infrastructure failure.

Conducting Field Investigations
Field investigation provides another source of technical evidence. Physical conditions may offer information about the configuration, condition, and operation of infrastructure that cannot be fully understood from documents alone.

Depending on the case, an engineer may examine sewer lines, manholes, pump stations, water piping, treatment facilities, septic system components, drainage structures, tanks, valves, pumps, or other infrastructure.

The timing of a field investigation can be important because repairs, cleanup, replacement, or subsequent changes may alter the original condition of a failed system. Photographs, inspection reports, repair records, and other contemporaneous documentation can therefore become important supporting evidence.

A field investigation does not simply document what is visible. It can help determine whether observed conditions are consistent with proposed failure mechanisms.

Evaluating Capacity and Actual Operating Conditions
System capacity is a common issue in water and wastewater cases. Infrastructure is generally designed around particular assumptions concerning flow, demand, population, rainfall, storage, pressure, or other operating conditions.

Actual conditions may differ from those assumptions.

A forensic engineer may compare design capacity with available information about actual flows, demand, rainfall, system use, or operating conditions. Hydraulic calculations and other engineering analyses may be used to determine whether infrastructure could reasonably have handled the conditions involved in an incident.

For wastewater systems, this may involve examining sewer capacity, pump performance, wet wells, force mains, collection systems, and treatment processes. For water systems, relevant issues may include pipe capacity, pump performance, storage, pressure, and water demand.

Examining Pump Station and Sewer Failures
Pump stations are critical components of many water and wastewater systems. Their failure can lead to service interruptions, sewage backups, flooding, or other infrastructure problems.

Technical investigations may examine pumps, wet wells, valves, controls, electrical components, force mains, corrosion, installation, operating conditions, and maintenance history.

Sewer investigations may involve blockages, root intrusion, pipe deterioration, infiltration and inflow, capacity limitations, corrosion, or other conditions affecting collection systems.

Experience with system design and operation can help provide context when evaluating whether a component performed as intended and whether other system conditions may have contributed to an incident.

Investigating Septic and Onsite Wastewater Systems
Septic systems present different engineering considerations from centralized sewer systems. Site conditions, soil characteristics, hydraulic loading, system design, installation, maintenance, and wastewater flows can all affect performance.

Forensic investigations may examine failed septic tanks, leach fields, mound systems, and other onsite wastewater components. Questions may involve whether a system was appropriately designed for the property, whether it was installed according to its design, whether site conditions affected performance, or whether maintenance and usage contributed to a failure.

Bonneau Dickson's project background includes more than 40 septic system projects involving both design and forensic engineering.

Examining Water Contamination
Some infrastructure disputes involve water quality and contamination rather than a mechanical failure.

Contamination investigations can involve potable water systems, sewer infrastructure, groundwater, sampling information, laboratory results, cross-connections, pipe conditions, and historical activities. The technical analysis may seek to identify potential sources and evaluate whether available evidence supports a proposed pathway of contamination.

PCE contamination cases can involve additional questions related to dry-cleaning operations, sewer systems, groundwater, pipe leakage, and contaminant movement. These cases require consideration of both infrastructure conditions and environmental factors.

Analyzing Stormwater and Flooding Events
Stormwater investigations can involve both natural and engineered factors. Rainfall intensity, drainage capacity, grading, detention systems, pump stations, maintenance, and system configuration may all affect how water moves through a property or service area.

A forensic engineering investigation may compare the conditions present during a flooding event with the design and capacity of the relevant drainage infrastructure.

This type of analysis can help distinguish between documented physical conditions and assumptions regarding the cause of flooding.

Converting Technical Findings Into Legal Evidence
Once technical information has been collected and analyzed, the findings may be presented through an engineering report, deposition testimony, or courtroom testimony.

A forensic report generally explains the scope of the investigation, documents reviewed, observations made, engineering methods used, relevant calculations, and technical conclusions. The report should distinguish between factual observations and professional opinions based on engineering analysis.

For attorneys and other legal professionals, this distinction is important because technical evidence must be understandable while remaining grounded in the available documentation and engineering principles.

An expert witness may also be questioned during deposition or trial about the methodology used, assumptions made, calculations performed, evidence considered, and reasoning behind the opinions presented.

Experience Across Water and Wastewater Infrastructure
Broad project experience can provide useful context when examining infrastructure disputes. An engineer who has worked on system design, construction, operation, maintenance, and failure investigations can evaluate a case from several technical perspectives.

The expert's engineering experience includes water and wastewater pump stations, sewer systems, septic systems, wastewater treatment facilities, water treatment facilities, water piping systems, stormwater infrastructure, potable water systems, and contamination investigations.

The experience includes more than 300 water and wastewater pump stations and more than 100 forensic and expert witness cases involving water, wastewater/sewage, and stormwater matters.

About Bonneau Dickson, PE
Bonneau Dickson, PE is a licensed sanitary engineer based in Berkeley, California. His engineering career spans more than 40 years, including extensive wastewater engineering experience and more than 25 years of forensic engineering and expert witness work.

His project experience includes water and wastewater systems, sewer infrastructure, septic systems, wastewater treatment facilities, pump stations, water treatment systems, water piping, stormwater infrastructure, and water contamination investigations.

His work has included engineering design, project management, construction oversight, inspection, system evaluation, forensic investigation, technical reporting, depositions, and expert testimony. His forensic case experience covers a range of water, wastewater, sewage, and stormwater infrastructure issues.

Forensic engineering in water and wastewater disputes requires the connection of field conditions, engineering records, system performance, and technical analysis. Examining these elements systematically can provide a documented basis for understanding infrastructure failures and presenting technical evidence in legal proceedings.

Bonneau Dickson
Bonneau Dickson, PE
+1 (510) 845-8625
dickson.bonneau@gmail.com
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