CHARLESTON, W.Va. — As U.S. District Judge John Copenhaver Jr. reviews the submitted revised settlement between West Virginia American Water and those impacted by the January 2014 Elk River chemical spill, Karan Ireland with Advocates for a Safe Water System said she’s looking to justice being served.
“I think all indications are is that we’ll get to that soon and hope to see something from the judge that moves that along,” she said.
A new proposal was filed Friday regarding the $151 million settlement from West Virginia American Water and Eastman Chemical Company. The new settlement would increase the basic payments to households from $525 plus an additional $170 per resident to $550 plus an additional $180 per resident. Payments to plaintiff lawyers would also decrease from 30 percent to 25 percent.
More than 300,000 residents were affected by the spill and did not have public water service for three weeks.
Ireland, who also serves as an at-large member of Charleston City Council, said some people will be appreciative of the new deal, but her overall goal is to transition Charleston’s water system to entirely public.
“We think there’s more transparency and more accountability,” she said. “Instead of being concerned with a 10-percent or 9-percent profit to shareholders, that money can be reinvested into infrastructure repair and renewal.”
Ireland was at the Kanawha County Public Library Charleston Branch on Monday night for a showing of “From Flint: Voices of a Poisoned City,” a short film detailing the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. Residents were possibly exposed to high levels of lead after the city switched the source of the system’s water to the Flint River.
Ireland said while the Flint water system is also public, there are other factors that keep a system and residents healthy.
“What happened there and what happens here is when people are more interested in profits or cutting costs and saving money, then sometimes public health suffers from that,” she said.
Former Freedom Industries executives Gary Southern and Dennis Farrell were sentenced to one month and prison and 30 days in jail after MCHM went into the Elk River.