Wednesday, December 17, 2014
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Four former chemical company executives have been indicted on federal pollution charges over a January spill that triggered a ban on drinking water for days for 300,000 West Virginia residents.
The indictment unsealed today charged ex-Freedom Industries presidents Gary Southern and Dennis P. Farrell and two others with failing to ensure that the company operated the steel storage tank that leaked the coal-cleaning chemical in a reasonable and environmentally sound manner.
Southern also faces federal fraud charges related to the company's bankruptcy case. Freedom filed for bankruptcy eight days after the Jan. 9 spill of the chemicals into the Elk River in Charleston. West Virginia American Water uses the river for its water supply a mile and a half downstream.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement that the tank conditions at Freedom Industries "were not only grievously unacceptable, but unlawful. They put an entire population needlessly at risk. As these actions make clear, such conduct cannot, and will not, be tolerated."
The others charged are William E. Tis and Charles E. Herzing, who along with Farrell owned Freedom until December 2013. They sold it to Pennsylvania-based Chemstream Holdings for $20 million, after which Southern became president.