Companies to pay $151 million to residents of West Virginia after poisoning their water

‘Residents and business owners in Charleston, West Virginia, who suffered injuries from a chemical spill that occurred back in 2014, will soon be receiving $151 million worth of settlement payments from the two companies responsible. U.S. District Judge John Copenhaver has tentatively approved a proposal made by West Virginia American Water Co. (WVAWC) and Eastman Chemical to pay out a massive lump sum rather than face any further litigation.
Problems first arose when Eastman Chemical decided to sell a chemical known as methylcyclohexane methanol, or crude MCHM, to another company called Freedom Industries, which decided to store it in a large tank near Charleston’s Elk River. MCHM is extremely corrosive, and it apparently leaked out of the storage tank and into the river, where it ended up tainting the water supplies tapped to at least 224,000 local residents, 7,300 business owners and many others.’
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