An engineer who was fired over his alleged role in the spill of 960 million litres of sewage into the Ottawa River in 2006 has launched a wrongful-dismissal suit against the City of Ottawa.

Barrie King, 64, was program manager for waste water collection when the spill occurred.

Earlier this month, the city was fined $562,000 for the spill, and on Wednesday the auditor released a report blaming the spill on incompetent management.

Auditor General Alain Lalonde alleged a number of engineers were responsible for the spill.

"The major findings that we have is basically some staff at the management level were incompetent in the sense of fulfilling their duties," Lalonde alleged.

So far, the city has fired three employees, including King.

According to the city, one of his jobs was to keep the Ontario Ministry of the Environment up to date on sewage spills into the river, something he failed to do, according to documents filed in court.

But King counters that he carried out his duties, and he was the one warning the city that more money was needed to fix crumbling sewer systems.

King and his lawyer turned down a request to talk about the lawsuit.

None of the allegations has been proven in court.

Councillors Rick Chiarelli and Alex Cullen, along with Mayor Larry O'Brien, are singled out in the statement of claim for allegedly making false, misleading and reckless statements regarding King's dismissal.

Chiarelli is making no apologies, saying, "I'm not going to let fear of a lawsuit stop us from dealing with pollution of the river."

Behind closed doors, city officials are talking with lawyers about further action against employees over the spill.

And the auditor general says the city has a case.

He's recommending that the city complain about its engineers to Professional Engineers Ontario.