South Shore residents have begun a possible $29-million class action suit against the city of Longueuil for taking too long to warn them of the diesel leak in the drinking water.

The lawyer heading the class action suit, Jacky-Eric Salvant, started meeting residents last Thursday. He made a request in court Monday morning to proceed with a class action lawsuit.

For now, the lawsuit is asking for $100 for each of the 288,000 residents in Old Longueuil, Saint-Hubert, Saint-Bruno and Boucherville, for the “stress, anxiety and inconvenience” of the ban.

He said the delay was too long for residents who were drinking the contaminated water for over 24 hours before a tap water ban was implemented. Many of his clients suffered from nausea and he said some even vomited after drinking the city water.

Salvant believes the city’s actions demonstrate major negligence.

“The city should have been more cautious, even a temporary ban would helped until they determined the extent of the problem,” said Salvant. “The city knew since Wednesday at 4 a.m. that there had been a diesel spill.”

The lawsuit request was tabled in court and a copy was given to city officials Monday morning.

A Quebec superior court judge at Longueuil courthouse will hear the case in March to decide if the lawsuit has merit and can continue. All residents are automatically inscribed in the list of complainants.

Salvant also said the suit may be modified later to include the company in charge of managing the pumping station where the diesel leak happened. It may even include Environment Canada, for causing delays in testing the water when they blocked access to the water tank on Friday.

Meanwhile, the mayors of Longueuil, Boucherville and Saint-Bruno promised an investigation.

In a press conference on Sunday, they said there were lots of unanswered questions and they wanted to know what went wrong when a pipe break from the Longueuil pumping station on January 13 caused a leak into the Saint-Lawrence River.

Residents were only warned over 24 hours later, and then a tap water ban was implemented for nearly 36 hours.

Longueuil Mayor Caroline St-Hilaire said the results of the investigation will be made public as soon as it is complete.

The City of Longueuil isn't currently commenting on the possible class-action lawsuit, claiming it needs time to review the documents first.