W.Va. company under scrutiny for chemical spill

A five-day water ban affecting 300,000 West Virginians began lifting Monday, and state officials were optimistic that nine counties could soon return to normalcy. But the chemical company responsible for the Elk River toxic spill is likely to remain mired in lawsuits, state and federal investigations and a prolonged shutdown.

Freedom Industries has been in hunker-down mode since Friday night, when company co-founder Gary Southern gave a brief press conference, dodging questions about the company's monitoring and preventive measures in the 7,500-gallon spill of 4-methylcyclohexane methanol (MCHM), a coal-cleaning agent that can cause skin irritation, vomiting and diarrhea.

So far, Freedom Industries has been hit with a dozen class-action lawsuits from residents and businesses seeking damages, as well as probes by the U.S. Attorney's office and the federal Chemical Safety Board.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/01/13/who-is-freedom-industries/4456279/

"Freedom Industries," doesn't that just say it all?

Ben_Reilly wrote:"Freedom Industries," doesn't that just say it all?

Did you see the spokesman/high up official/owner not sure for freedom apologizing on tv
Half way through he was handed a bottle of bottled water he drank it on camera ...................... ::dunno::

 

WHEN will idiot State governments learn NOT to keep on allowing toxic-chemical plants to continually be located on waterways, catchments and over aquifers !!!

DESPITE hundreds of catastrophic leakages and spills over the past century, state/provence "authorities" across the world KEEP ON rubber-stamping these "disasters in waiting" to be located in the most ridiculous places ~ simply to save the operating companies money on their operating costs..     

AND the local communities, downstream water users, and the environment itself, NEVER get a look-in nor any real justice !


FREEDOM INDUSTRIES ?  Sounds like a military-oriented manufacturing company that may have originally come into existence to cash-in on the post-9/11 hysteria that swept America in the early 'noughties' ???  

Korben Dallas wrote:

Ben_Reilly wrote:
"Freedom Industries," doesn't that just say it all?

Did you see the spokesman/high up official/owner not sure  for freedom  apologizing on tv
Half way through he was handed a bottle of bottled water he drank it on camera ...................... ::dunno::

  

I WONDER if such absurd theatrics was an attempt at "subliminal conditioning/suggestion" by the company's spin doctors ?

A weak attempt at producing a background "sub-conscious 'feel good' feeling" among their audience (that I reckon many kindergarten students could see through these days..), that the water is clean and pure and fit to drink..

        

The chemical 4-methylcyclohexane methanol is now leaving the Elk River and entering the Ohio River, still in deadly concentrations. Several metropolitan areas are on the banks of the Ohio, including Cincinnati and Louisville. Then on to the Mississippi, south of St. Louis.

  

GOODBYE "Freedom Industries"...

I can see that company having so many lawsuits and compensation claims being made against them, that they will be forced to stay in business for the next thousand years just to pay their bills !   

Beekeeper wrote:  

GOODBYE "Freedom Industries"...

I can see that company having so many lawsuits and compensation claims being made against them, that they will be forced to stay in business for the next thousand years just to pay their bills !   

That would be nice, wouldn't it? I'm afraid that instead, they'll be hit with a fine that basically amounts to no more than a week of their profits. That's what happens all the time here in the land of freedom ...

File under “failed incentives”: Bank of America lied about $3.6 billion in Merrill Lynch bonuses, and as a result will pay $33 million in fines to the SEC. That’s less than 0.92% of the bonuses in question.

If I were Citigroup, and the Feds were telling me not to pay Andrew Hall his $100 million bonus, I’d be inclined to just pay it anyway. And then sheepishly apologize and pay a $920,000 fine. So much easier than doing the right thing from the beginning.

http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2009/08/03/bofas-tiny-sec-fine/

 

PETTY FINES like those are effectively another way of "shifting public resources into private pockets" ~ in those banking fraud cases, stealing from a community's funds by NOT fining corporations at proper and justifiable levels... ANOTHER example of the modern day corporatised "Robber Barons" in action..

DURING the GFC "bailouts", apparently nearly half of the funds were used to boost the "early retirements" of many CEOs and directors, and topping up "productivity and performance bonuses" = even when the companies were bankrupted ! And then half of the remaining funds were misappropriated by repaying old debts. THAT means around 3/4 of those bailout funds were wasted due to lacks of due diligence and proper oversight by government agencies..

THE top four "Transfers of Public Funds into Private Hands" over the past century were :
*  World War Two
*  The Vietnam War
*  The combined Invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan [since 1991..]
*  The 'GFC' Bailouts.