New Batch of Water Crisis Settlement Checks Total $3M

A chemical known as Crude MCHM spilled from a storage tank into the river.

Freedom Industries
Cincinnati Water, @CincinnatiWater

CHARLESTON, W.VA. (AP) β€” A lawyer for West Virginia residents affected by a 2014 chemical spill into a river says another batch of settlement checks from a class-action lawsuit is going in the mail.

Attorney Anthony Majestro tells The Charleston Gazette-Mail that U.S. District Court Judge John Copenhaver approved the distribution of more than 1,500 individual review option claims totaling nearly $3 million. Majestro says the people will receive their checks in seven days.

The residents and businesses had sued after a chemical known as Crude MCHM spilled from a storage tank at Freedom Industries into the Elk River.

The spill was upriver from a water plant in Charleston and people were told not to drink or clean with the water for days. It contaminated water for roughly 300,000 people.

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