Olive oil factory heavily damaged by water

WATERBURY, Conn. (WTNH) -- Major damage was done to an olive oil factory in Waterbury after a water main break earlier this week, leaving concerns about the future of the company and the jobs of the workers.

"It's a mess," said Waterbury's Mayor Neil O'Leary. "It's a disaster in there."

So begins the aftermath at the Olive Oil Factory on Huntingdon Avenue in Waterbury, where a water main break Monday brought business to a standstill and destroyed some $3 million worth of product alone.

It all started with a contractor doing environmental remediation work for the building's previous owner.

"All we really know is that the drilling contractor came in, and during his drilling he hit the pipe and ruptured it, and flooded the building," O'Leary said.

Apart from a nightmare of water, soil, and debris, the building itself is okay, but machinery might be a different story.

"We feel very confident that we're going to clean the building out very quickly, and then it's a matter of assessing the damage to the equipment inside there and the production line," O'Leary explained.

It's uncertain how soon the company and its workers will be up and running again, but according to the mayor, the owners have their employees' backs.

"My understanding is, at least for now, the company is standing behind their employees and will continue to support them," he said. "And, from our perspective, the city's side, we're going to do everything we can to get this place back on line very quickly, so that there will be very little interruption here."

But there's still the task of figuring out who picks up the tab.

"Our staff is saying that they marked out the site clearly. Obviously, that may be in dispute but we'll see where it goes from here," O'Leary said.