Last official charged in West Virginia chemical spill pleads guilty

[bemildred]

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.

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/8/19/official-charged-in-west-virginia-spill-pleads-guilty.html

[Hoppy]

1. Shit. That federal prosecutor ain't got nothing to be proud of. Chris Christie settled a $2billion

suit against Exxon for a few hundred thousand. That saved N.j. taxpayers court costs. And Christie saved the taxpayers the cost of not putting any Exxon criminals in jail.

[gratuitous]

2. Dear Mr. Southern: Here's hoping you have many a "long day" in the very near future

This seems like a newsworthy event; have any of the major media outlets given it any play?