Two former employees at Freedom Industries pleaded guilty to a pollution charge Wednesday in last year’s chemical spill in West Virginia that fouled a local tap water supply, the Associated Press reported Wednesday. Ex-Freedom plant manager Michael Burdette and environmental consultant Robert Reynolds entered the pleas at separate hearings to negligent discharge of a pollutant. Each faces up to a year in prison and a minimum $2,500 fine when sentenced June 24. The spill of thousands of gallons of a coal-cleaning agent from Freedom Industries into the Elk River went into West Virginia American Water’s intake 2 miles downstream on Jan. 9, 2014. It prompted a tap water ban for 300,000 residents in nine counties for up to 10 days while the water company’s system was flushed out. Former Freedom owners Charles Herzing and William Tis pleaded guilty Monday to causing an unlawful discharge. Ex-Freedom owner Dennis Farrell and former President Gary Southern face trial later this year on charges related to the spill. In addition, Southern faces charges related to Freedom’s bankruptcy.
