"Judge: Freedom Industries Proposal Underfunds Toxic Cleanup"

A federal judge Wednesday rejected Freedom Industries' bankruptcy proposal and ordered the company to clean up the site where its January 2014 chemical spill contaminated Charleston, W.V., drinking water.

"Siding with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection in a growing dispute with Freedom Industries, a federal judge said Wednesday the company’s latest proposal for resolving its bankruptcy case provides inadequate funding to assure a proper cleanup of its Etowah River Terminal, site of the January 2014 Elk River chemical leak that contaminated drinking water for 300,000 area residents.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Ronald Pearson turned down a request from Freedom for an 'expedited' status conference to discuss the company’s efforts to negotiate a deal with the DEP over remediation of the site, and instead sustained the agency’s objection to a $6.7 million bankruptcy plan that would have set aside just $150,000 for future cleanup work.

Pearson, in a 10-page order, said Freedom’s plan was not acceptable primarily because of 'the unsettled terms of environmental remediation, a matter of highest priority in the case.'"

Ken Ward Jr. reports for the Charleston Gazette May 13, 2015.