Last official charged in West Virginia chemical spill pleads guilty

The last of six company officials charged in a chemical spill that contaminated drinking water for 300,000 people in West Virginia last year pleaded guilty on Wednesday to pollution charges.

Former Freedom Industries President Gary Southern pleaded guilty to three federal pollution charges in federal court in Charleston and could face up to three years in prison. The development comes one day after ex-Freedom Industries executive Dennis Farrell entered a guilty plea in a related case.

In January 2014, a Freedom Industries tank leaked coal-cleaning chemicals into the Elk River in Charleston, upriver from a water treatment plant that serves nine counties, spurring a ban on tap water for up to 10 days. Southern appeared unsympathetic when he spoke to the public a day after the spill, telling reporters he had a "long day," while trying to leave a news conference multiple times.

The bankrupt company and other officials have also pleaded guilty to pollution charges. Local businesses and residents who struggled without clean water are closely watching the cases that will dictate if they are compensated for their hardships.

A class-action lawsuit is also ongoing against the chemical's producer, Eastman Chemical, and West Virginia American Water, the utility whose water supply became laced with chemicals.

A final bankruptcy deal still hasn't been struck, as businesses and residents compete with other creditors for the little cash remaining in defunct Freedom Industries. The company had proposed paying out $2.7 million to spill victims in a larger bankruptcy plan, but a federal bankruptcy judge rejected the proposal over concerns about paying to clean up Freedom's contaminated headquarters.

And in the criminal case, a community group is pushing for restitution for victims.

In a letter to the judge, Maya Nye, executive director of People Concerned About Chemical Safety, suggested an award of at least $45.6 million — $1 per person affected over the five months that the main spilled chemical was traceable, albeit at very low levels, in the water company's filters. The letter says $109.5 million would be the appropriate amount.

Nye said any award should fund programs related to chemical disaster prevention, water quality and infrastructure improvement, and development of long-term health data and prevention strategies related to the spill. 

The Associated Press