CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Jury selection has been pushed back in the class-action case against West Virginia American Water Company over the 2014 Freedom Industries chemical spill.
U.S. District Judge John Copenhaver Jr. rescheduled jury selection for Monday. It was supposed to start Friday in Charleston Federal Court.
A second defendant in the lawsuit, Eastman Chemical — the maker of the chemical MCHM — reached a settlement Wednesday.
The water company is accused of insufficiently safeguarding Charleston from a chemical spill on the Elk River that contaminated drinking water for nearly 300,000 residents in parts of nine West Virginia counties in January 2014.
The chemical leaked from a storage tank of Freedom Industries into the river.