A federal bankruptcy judge is becoming increasing concerned that Freedom Industries may abandon its former Elk River chemical storage facility without completing a proper environmental cleanup of the site of the January chemical spill that contaminated the drinking water supply for hundreds of thousands of residents across the region, the Charleston (W. Va.) Gazette reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Ronald Pearson says that the Freedom bankruptcy proceeding has not progressed adequately, and that too much of the company’s limited cash is being earmarked for attorneys, perhaps leaving inadequate funds to complete remediation required by existing enforcement orders from the state Department of Environmental Protection. In a seven-page order filed on Friday, Judge Pearson said recent bankruptcy case filings by Freedom’s lawyers cause him “to fear [Freedom] is not sufficiently committed to compliance with the demolition and cleanup orders of the” DEP or “other agencies of the state and federal government.” Judge Pearson cited language in Freedom’s proposed plan for liquidating the company stating that, while efforts “will be undertaken to remediate the site,” there are “financial limitations” to what Freedom “can viably undertake by way of compliance with” the remediation plan for its Etowah Terminal, site of the Jan. 9 leak of Crude MCHM and other chemicals into the Elk River.
