A federal bankruptcy judge on Friday said that he was leaning toward approving the bankruptcy plan for Freedom Industries Inc., the company behind last year’s chemical spill in West Virginia, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. The move would pave the way for thousands of people harmed by the spill to begin receiving payments. At a hearing Friday afternoon in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Charleston, W.Va., Judge Ronald Pearson said that the various settlement and compromises in the plan, which divvies up $6.1 million between Freedom’s creditors and West Virginia residents, merited approval. But he took Freedom’s liquidation plan under advisement in order to review the final language on some minor modifications to the proposal. He said he would rule this week.
