Water District, James Hardie Settle Suit
Date Posted: July 28, 2026
Posted In: News, Projects,
From Leader Publications: Public Water Supply District No. 12 has agreed to settle with James Hardie Building Products Inc., allowing the manufacturer to detach from the district and instead receive water from Crystal City.
While Crystal City voted to annex the James Hardie property in 2022, Brad Bryant, district manager of PWSD No. 12, said the property still lies within his water supply district’s geographic boundaries – along with about 17 other homes and businesses along Airport Road.
Bryant said his board felt confident the district would have won the lawsuit in the long-term but didn’t have the financial resources to continue litigation. He said the settlement was agreed on in June.
“We didn’t want to spend any more of our ratepayers’ money,” Bryant said. “They (James Hardie) paid us $150,000, which more than covered our attorney’s fees, and their property is no longer in our district.”
Crystal City Mayor Mike Osher said on July 16 that he wasn’t privy to all the details of the settlement agreement, and there are no immediate plans with James Hardie to begin supplying water to its Crystal City site.
“(The agreement) is just one more domino that needs to fall to bring all those manufacturing jobs and a great corporation to the county,” Osher said. “I’m absolutely excited for it, and I can speak for the (Crystal City) Council, we’re all excited for James Hardie to come to town.”
State and local officials announced in October 2022 that James Hardie is planning to build a 1.25 million-square-foot facility on and around the former Festus Municipal Airport property in Crystal City to manufacture fiber cement, siding and trim and other building products. The facility, off Airport Road, is expected to create about 230 jobs.