CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A proposed settlement involving two former executives for Freedom Industries, the company responsible for the 2014 chemical spill on the Elk River, and those affected when their water was contaminated by the spill is pending.
Gary Southern, former Freedom president, has agreed to pay $350,000 while Dennis Farrell, a former Freedom executive, will pay $50,000 with the proposal, according to a filing this week in U.S. District Court in Charleston.
Among the plaintiffs are residents and business owners who went without usable water for weeks in some cases.
In separate criminal cases, both Southern and Farrell have not yet been sentenced on federal pollution charges tied to the spill.
The Jan. 2014 spill of MCHM contaminated tap water for 300,000 West Virginia American Water Company customers in parts of nine West Virginia counties.
Freedom has since filed for bankruptcy.
Removal of contaminated soil from the former Freedom site in Kanawha County began earlier this week.