Freedom Industries Pays $11,000 Fine in Chemical Spill

A company that spilled chemicals into West Virginia’s largest water supply has paid an $11,000 fine for a pair of violations.

The Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined Freedom Industries $7,000 earlier this month for keeping storage tanks containing crude MCHM behind a diked wall that was not liquid tight.

On Jan. 9, roughly 10,000 gallons of MCHM leaked from one of the tanks and through the riverside diked wall and left 300,000 residents in nine counties without clean water for days.

OSHA also fined Freedom Industries $4,000 for failing to have standard railings on an elevated platform.

The Charleston Gazette reports Freedom Industries elected not to challenge the fine.