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New Hampshire Ball Bearings in Peterborough has sued two companies in federal court after the installation of an environmental barrier failed to properly treat contaminants seeping into nearby groundwater.

The company claims a system installed by New Jersey-based GeoSierra Environmental Inc. did not deliver the proper treatment because of the design, installation errors and incorrect geochemistry, according to the suit.

The second company named in the lawsuit, Hull & Associates of Ohio, served as project manager and hydrogeologic consultant.

The system is known as a permeable reactive barrier, or PRB. The treatment at the Peterborough factory is mandated by the U.S. Environmental protection Agency.

Construction was completed in March 2015 with Hull monitoring groundwater samples for concentrations of chlorinated volatile organic compounds (CVOC’s). It replaced a pumping system installed in the 1990s to control and manage contaminants of the South Well Superfund site, according to the suit.

“After eighteen months of monitoring the groundwater for CVOC’s and geochemical parameters, the results did not indicate that CVOC’s were decreasing consistent with design expectations,” the suit reads.

New Hampshire Ball Bearings claims after several attempts to contact GeoSierra that the company “had no intention of remedying the failed” system.

GeoSierra didn’t meet its agreement to design and install a “PRB capable of achieving specific containment and treatment objectives established by the EPA,” according to the suit. New Hampshire Ball Bearings claims GeoSierra violated New Hampshire’s Consumer Protection Act.

GeoSierra’s design was based on information and data provided by the company and Hull, according to Laura Carroll, representing GeoSierra.

“GeoSierra did not, as NHBB has alleged, contract to ‘deliver a PRB capable of achieving containment and treatment specifications mandated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency,’ and GeoSierra specifically excluded any performance guarantees associated with the PRB since the PRB was being located in the middle of an existing plume with all site data collected by others,” she wrote.

GeoSierra believes the system is not achieving the objectives of New Hampshire Ball Bearings because of events and circumstances beyond its control, Carroll said, including the data the company was provided and activities performed by New Hampshire Ball Bearings and others that interfered with the system’s functioning.

Hull breached its promise to New Hampshire Ball Bearings to provide “accurate and reliable hydrogeological data’’ for the design of the PRB, according to the suit.

Hull says it worked as an agent for New Hampshire Ball Bearings and isn’t responsible for the failed system.

“GeoSierra’s representations regarding the capabilities of its system were materially false in that it does not appear that GeoSierra’s trenchless (PRB) system is capable of adequate treating NHBB’s site,” Hull’s response to the suit reads.

Attorney Michael Coghlan, representing Hull, declined comment Tuesday afternoon.

New Hampshire Ball Bearings is asking for the amount of damages to be determined at trial. Attorney Robert Lucic, representing the company, declined further comment citing the pending litigation.

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