Chemical Spill Site Sold at Auction

It sold for $375,000.

Freedom
Jake Flatley, @JakeFlatley

CHARLESTON, W.VA. (AP) — The former site of a company that spilled chemicals into a West Virginia river has been sold at auction for $375,000.

WOWK-TV reports business owner Jim Shafer bought the Freedom Industries site on Thursday.

Shafer owns a steel fabrication shop near Clendenin and plans to expand to the Freedom Industries location along the Elk River in Charleston.

In January 2014, a tank at Freedom Industries leaked thousands of gallons of coal-cleaning chemicals that got into West Virginia American Water's treatment plant 1.5 miles downstream.

About 300,000 people were told not to drink or clean with the water for days.


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