There has been a tentative agreement between the two companies involved in the 2014 chemical spill that left 300,000 West Virginians without water. The two companies paying out are the West Virginia American Water Co. and the Eastman Chemical Co.
West Virginia American will pay up to $126 million and Eastman Chemical up to $25 million under the deals, according to court records and lawyers in the case.
Exact distribution plans for the money still are being worked out, but lawyers for the plaintiff class said they believe the settlements will compensate everyone affected by the spill — from residents who had to purchase bottled water to businesses that had to close when they couldn’t use their water, to individuals who sought medical attention after being exposed to the chemicals that contaminated the region’s drinking water supply following the Jan. 9, 2014, spill at Freedom Industries.
This is the culmination of an incredibly large class action lawsuit.
The agreement settles a class action lawsuit brought by at least 224,000 local residents and 7,300 business owners as well as hourly "wage earners" whose places of employment were supplied by West Virginia American Water Co. The exact terms of payment to the claimants in the case haven't been determined, and will be subject to further approval by the judge.
The settlement also explains that nobody is at fault here. There’s nothing to see here whatsoever.
In prepared statements, Eastman and West Virginia American both emphasized that in the settlement they did not admit any fault or liability for the contamination of the region’s drinking water.
West Virginia American said, “A resolution through a settlement allows us and our dedicated employees to serve our customers without the distractions of ongoing lawsuits.”
Eastman said, “We we worked with plaintiffs’ counsel to negotiate a global settlement to resolve all litigation, and to provide benefits and closure to the community.”
That’s right neighborly of them. While it is unlikely, it would be nice if more and more people realized that this spill, the “fifth major industrial accident in eight years” in West Virginia might have something to do with how the laws surrounding industry have “evolved.”
The spill struck a state in the throes of one of America’s most thorough political transformations. Once a Democratic stronghold, West Virginia has moved so far to the right that, in 2012, President Obama lost all fifty-five counties, a first for a Presidential candidate of either major party. In the Democratic Presidential primary, a challenger had won forty-one per cent of the vote—impressive in part because the candidate, Keith Judd, is serving seventeen and a half years in a federal prison for extortion.
The state has become a standard-bearer for pro-business, limited-government conservatism. The day before the chemical spill, the governor, Earl Ray Tomblin, delivered his State of the State address, criticizing federal environmental regulators and vowing, “I will never back down from the E.P.A., because of its misguided policies on coal.” Tomblin, a conservative Democrat elected in 2011, cut corporate taxes and denounced the federal government for overstepping its authority. To balance the budget, he tapped other government funds and called for broad cuts, including reducing agency spending by seventy million dollars. For the second consecutive year, West Virginia’s Department of Environmental Protection would take a 7.5-per-cent cut in state funds, dropping to its lowest level since 2008.
It is good to see a possible settlement but there are still miles to go and whether or not these companies will do what is right and pay for some legal fees as well. Of course, some shenanigans seemed to be afoot in the initial drawing up of this settlement, which bothered Judge John Copenhaver.
At Monday morning’s hearing, Copenhaver expressed concern that the term sheet provided to him for the West Virginia American settlement could have allowed the water company to seek recovery through the state Public Service Commission’s rate-setting process for the costs of the settlement.
[...]
Lawyers said that settlement language was never meant to allow West Virginia American to seek rate recovery of the settlement costs, and that water company officials hadn’t intended to seek such rate hikes, but that West Virginia American simply hadn’t had time between Friday’s announcement of a tentative settlement and Monday morning’s hearing to get final corporate approval for that part of the agreement.
[*Cough* bullshit] The water companies are suing their insurers as well and so they will be seeking to get back some of their losses that way.